DOCUMENT: Crime

Kissinger Tells Of A Drunk Nixon

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Kissinger Tells Of A Drunk Nixon

JACKO: Accuser seeks damages for memo "leaked" to The Smoking Gun

MAY 26--Below you'll find the transcript of an October 1973 telephone conversation during which Henry Kissinger told an aide that President Richard Nixon was too drunk to take a call from the British prime minister. The call between Kissinger, Nixon's secretary of state and national security adviser, and Brent Scowcroft came just days into the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and centered on Prime Minister Edward Heath's desire to speak with Nixon about the Middle East. "Can we tell them no?," Kissinger asked Scowcroft. "When I talked to the president, he was loaded." Kissinger then told Scowcroft that Nixon "will be available tomorrow morning our time." The transcript was among more than 20,000 pages of Kissinger phone transcripts released today by the National Archives. (1 page)