WASHINGTON DC - Back in 1972, President Richard Nixon saw enemies everywhere -- the press, the establishment, the professors.

Brian Todd reports on newly-released recordings of Richard Nixon, discussing the bombing of North Vietnam.

December 14th, 1972... Then-national security adviser Henry Kissinger returns to Washington from the Paris Peace-Talks. Negotiations to end the Vietnam War have broken-down... In a meeting with the president, Kissinger says the North Vietnamese have double-dealed him over and over. And he finally blurts out his frustration:

"They are tawdry, miserable, filthy people. They make the Russians look good."

"And the Russians make the Chinese look good."

Later in the conversation, Kissinger lays it on the line-- about the only way he thinks the North Vietnamese would make concessions:

"I would recommend that we be open to the possibility of settlement, if the other side meets some very minimum conditions that we have indicated. I would then recommend that we start bombing the bejeezus out of them within 48-hours.

This is part of 200-hours of White House recordings, 90-thousand pages of documents just released by the Nixon Presidential Library And Museum... Much of it covering the period between Nixon's 1972 re-election and his inauguration. The Nixon library director says listeners can take a simple message from the frustration over Vietnam, shown by Nixon and Kissinger:

"It's a reminder that our government, even though it's the most powerful in the world and has incredible leverage, can't control everything."

In that same conversation, Nixon's inching toward ordering an escalation of the bombing of North Vietnam... He tells Kissinger how he wants this presented to the public:

"This war must end. It must end soon. And if they don't want to talk, we will have to go there... if they won't return our prisoners we want to get back soon, we're going to take the necessary military action to get them back. that's what you've got to get across."

Later that day, Nixon orders the escalation of the bombing-- which did bring North Vietnam back to the bargaining table. A peace-agreement was later signed in January of 1973... And despite that frustration shown by Kissinger with his North Vietnamese counterparts... He shared a Nobel Peace Prize with the lead North Vietnamese negotiator that same year. More Nixon Tapes Released