Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 003-069
Date: Wednesday, May 19, 1971 at 6:11 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Rogers, William P.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/003-069

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello.
[0:00] Hi, Mr. President.
[0:02] I wondered if you had any, had your talk, what if anything came out of your Mansfield talk?
[0:10] Chapin told me you... Well, I talked to him, and I just told him that there'd been a breakthrough, and that you could have announced it earlier, but you didn't want to.
[0:23] Because of the vote, it worked it out, so there are going to be simultaneous announcements.
[0:28] I said it's not a conclusion yet, but it's very hopeful.
[0:33] And it's something the president has undertaken himself, and it's very successful, we think.
[0:39] And he's going to have a meeting with you and the others tomorrow.
[0:41] And you're the only one we've told.
[0:43] And I wanted to let you know this.
[0:45] And the president wanted you to know that we didn't want any leak at all or anything.
[0:50] So I didn't tell him very much except that.
[0:53] And he seemed to be appreciative.
[0:55] uh we still have a little problem understand matthias resolution yeah yeah i was bob holloman just uh told me that you uh i understand the damn thing isn't going to come up till seven o'clock and it's very close yeah and i'm just i just finished talking to percy and i'm gonna try to get cooper you know you know the real problem is about bill is that damn it uh
[1:15] If these guys could only just wait.
[1:18] I mean, if they could only realize they're going to look better tomorrow.
[1:22] Well, I didn't tell them.
[1:23] You could almost imply that.
[1:25] Well, I said to Percy, things are going damn well now.
[1:28] Yeah, that's right.
[1:29] And why don't you support the president?
[1:31] Why do you have to have something?
[1:33] He says, I voted for the president.
[1:34] What's wrong with that?
[1:35] I pointed out that the bill didn't make any sense as drafted.
[1:39] Yeah.
[1:39] Well, I thought I'd make some other calls.
[1:41] I'm going to call Cooper and a few others.
[1:43] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[1:45] When you call Cooper, you might just tell him that you and I have talked, and I just consider this, for reasons that he will know later in the week, is enormously important.
[1:58] I put it to him hard.
[1:59] Could you do that?
[2:00] Sure.
[2:01] Because I've asked John to do things, and he's sometimes done them and sometimes hasn't.
[2:07] But I just say that for a reason.
[2:08] I just can't tell you anything, but I just think there's something.
[2:11] We don't want any leaks or anything, and I wouldn't tell him.
[2:14] But one thing about Mike, Mike will never leak anything.
[2:16] No, he won't.
[2:16] He is awfully good that way.
[2:18] That's right.
[2:18] And he will appreciate the fact, Bill, that you called him.
[2:21] That's right.
[2:22] Because tomorrow, what he hears is it's going to be like a dash of cold water.
[2:25] That's right.
[2:27] I mean, he'll like that it's done, but it'll be like a dash of cold water in the sense that hereafter he was...
[2:32] you know putting up an amendment to tie our hands that we've accomplished something that's right okay well let me i'll make a few calls i'll try to get what time is the vote another hour so they're not too sure yeah yeah what does it count what do you have uh well i think it's it's still fluid most of them don't know yeah you know they all think that mansfield is beaten yeah and they think this is innocuous yeah and in a sense it is it doesn't it isn't controlling the way the other was yeah it's uh
[3:00] They want to vote for something.
[3:01] They want to vote for something, and most of them haven't read it.
[3:05] And Percy kept saying, well, this is not the spirit.
[3:08] And I said, come on, Chuck, it's not the spirit.
[3:10] It's what's written on the piece of paper.
[3:12] The piece of paper says that the president should negotiate with the Russians on the one hand for mutual reductions and negotiate with NATO for unilateral reductions.
[3:23] Now, nothing could be more mutually inconsistent.
[3:26] Yeah.
[3:27] The second part destroys the first, right?
[3:30] Yeah.
[3:31] Well, that's right.
[3:32] You can't negotiate with NATO unilaterally, and that destroys your capacity to do the other.
[3:37] I said in my letter that I sent to the Senate, he hasn't used it yet, but I told him he could if he wanted to.
[3:41] I ended up by saying the reporting procedure is very simple, because we can tell you now what the report is.
[3:47] Progress in our discussions and negotiations with the Russians on mutual reductions.
[3:51] Our progress is none.
[3:54] Good.
[3:55] It'll be none every time until, if it looks as if they're going to put pressure on you to reduce our forces unilaterally.
[4:01] Yeah.
[4:01] And that'll make us look silly at NATO.
[4:03] I said, what the hell can I tell the NATO people?
[4:07] They go, gee, he's a great stand-up son of a bitch.
[4:10] Isn't he, though?
[4:11] Yeah.
[4:11] Okay.
[4:11] Well, I'll make some calls.
[4:12] Good luck.
[4:12] Okay, then.