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Article: Tapes: Nixon Considered Nuclear Bomb
- Article from:
- AP Online
- Article date:
- February 28, 2002
- Author:
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Dateline: COLLEGE PARK, Md.
A few weeks before ordering an escalation of the Vietnam War, President
Nixon matter-of-factly raised the idea of using a nuclear bomb. The
notion was quickly shot down by national security adviser Henry Kissinger.
Nixon's abrupt suggestion, buried in 500 hours of tapes released Thursday
at the National Archives, came after Kissinger laid out a variety
of options for stepping up the war effort, such as attacking power
plants and docks, in an April 25, 1972, conversation in the Executive
Office Building.
"I'd rather use the nuclear bomb," Nixon responded.
"That, I think, would just be too much," Kissinger replied.
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