890–16

Conversation No. 890-16

Date: March 30, 1973
Time: 11:30 am - 11:39 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Donald E. Johnson and James H. Cavanaugh. The White House
photographer was present at the beginning of the meeting.

Veteran affairs
-Public relations [PR]
-Bureaucracy
-Veterans organizations
-Veterans of Foreign Wars [VFW]
-Problem
-Problems
-Public statements
-President’s speech
-March 29, 1973
-Johnson’s report
-Work with Vietnam veterans
-Vietnam veterans
-Compared with draft dodgers and exiles, students
-Canada, Sweden
-Benefits
-Lower-level income veterans
-Doctors, lawyers
-Motivation
-Physical injuries
-Emotional injuries
-Mental injuries
-Prisoners of war [POWs]
-Suffering
-Capt. Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr.
-Airplane landing
-Meetings with President
-Wives
-Impressiveness
-Col. Robinson Risner
 -28-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2010)
Conversation No. 890-16 (cont’d)


-Solitary confinement
-Communist captors
-Meals
-Reading
-Communist propaganda
-Torture
-Radio broadcasts
-Problems
-Psychological problems
-Veterans Administration {VA]
-Response
-Social problems
-Public response to homecoming
-Divorce rates
-Figures
-POWs
-Veterans
-Compared with national divorce rates
-Standards
-POWs
-Retention in military
-Missing in action [MIA]
-Notification of families
-Defense Department declaration
-Killed in action [KIA]
-Former POWs
-World War II
-Korean War
-Rapport
-Negotiations with North Vietnam
-December 1972 bombing
-President’s support
-Work with international groups
-Full accounting

VA
-Reorganization
-President’s guidelines
-Frank W. Naylor, Jr.
 -29-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2010)
Conversation No. 890-16 (cont’d)


-Work with VA
-Committee to Re-Elect the President [CRP]
-Vietnam veteran
-Problem with bureaucracy
-Size
-Need to disperse
-State legislators compared with national legislators
-Competence, corruption
-Iowa
-Washington, DC
-Impact of mistakes
-Vietnam veteran relocation
-California
-Florida
-Congressional relations [?]
-William J. B. Dorn [?]
-Johnson
-Work with Congress
-Cavanaugh
-Strategy
-VFW
-Work with veterans groups
-Support of President
-Family

Herbert C. Hoover Library
-Dinner
-100th anniversary of Hoover

Johnson and Cavanaugh left at 11:39 am.