Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 3 › Conversation 003-114

Nixon phone call with Kissinger on SALT and Foreign Policy

Friday, May 21, 1971 · 8:30 PM–8:36 PM ET · White House Telephone · 6 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.; [Unknown person(s)]Conversation003-114 on Tape 3 (tape position 02:15:08–02:21:00)StartFriday, May 21, 1971 at 8:30 PMEndFriday, May 21, 1971 at 8:36 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 003-114 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417188467 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Henry Kissinger discuss the favorable media coverage surrounding the administration's progress in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). Kissinger reports on his briefings with prominent journalists, noting that their reporting confirms a growing consensus that the President is achieving a historic breakthrough in U.S.-Soviet relations. The two reflect on their strategic decision-making process since December 1970 regarding the USSR and China, concluding that their diplomatic maneuvering has effectively neutralized political opposition.

Audio

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NARA Description

On May 21, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and unknown person(s) talked on the telephone from 8:30 pm to 8:36 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 003-114 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 003-114

Date: May 21, 1971
Time: 8:30 pm - 8:36 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Henry A. Kissinger.

     Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
           -Kissinger's briefings
                -Max Frankel [?]
           -Coverage

     Kissinger's location

     Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
           -Kissinger's briefings
                -Frankel

******************************************************************************

[Previous PRMPA Privacy (D) reviewed under PRMPA regulations 10/24/2017. Segment
cleared for release.]
[Privacy]
[003-114-w001]
[Duration: 27s]

     Secretary of the Army appointment
          -Melvin R. Laird’s position
          -The President’s action
          -H.R. Haldeman’s call
                -Recommendations for and against
          -Melvin R. Laird’s responsibility
          -Robert F. Froehlke
                -Nixon supporter
                -The President’s opinion
******************************************************************************

     Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
           -Kissinger's briefings
                -Frankel
                      -Agreement
                -Chalmers Roberts
                      -Forthcoming Washington Post editorial
Show the rest of the log (35 more lines)
                       -Agreement
                              -President, Leonid Brezhnev
            -Press coverage
                 -Agreement
                 -Boston Globe
                       -Robert Healy
                       -President's accomplishments
            -United States [US]-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR] relations
            -Kissinger's briefings
                 -Frankel

     United States [US] foreign policy
          -People's Republic of China [PRC]
          -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
          -Poland
          -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
                -Anatoliy F. Dobrynin
                -Berlin
          -Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
                -Dobrynin

     Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
           -Press coverage
                -New York Daily News

The President conferred with an unknown person at an unknown time between 8:30 pm and 8:36
pm.

[End of conferral]

            -Administration handling
            -Democrats
                -Roberts

     President's and Kissinger's schedule

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 11% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).

Hello.
Mr. President.
Did you finish with your friend?
I certainly did.
I think this thing is really building.
Tell me, where are you?
Where you can talk?
Yeah, I'm at home.
Fine.
How'd it go with him?
Well, very well.
And he said, you know, this is turning into...
I thought it was good to stop in here.
Oh, I thought it was terrific.
It makes him realize, you know, we're talking about other important things, too.
Go ahead.
Yeah.
You hear that?
Yeah.
And, uh, Thomas Roberts called tonight and said he just wanted me to know that there would be a very positive editorial in the Post tomorrow.
And also, he wanted me to know that, as he thought about it, he'd concluded that, uh, you serve your constituency and Rush has served his constituency but the world's one.
What?
Which is, you know, maybe a cynical way of putting it.
But they're all, in fact, the more they think about it, the more positive they become.
Well, you know, really, looking at these fellows, and we all know that they're selfish and partisan and the rest, but on the other hand, all the decent guy, any guy with any sense of decency, is interested in world peace.
And he's got to realize that this is an enormously potential breakthrough in that area that they've never even thought about.
Well, for example, I picked up, I guess they bought Globes.
Oh, yeah.
Robert Healy's.
It has a whole column on the editorial page covering the whole length of it.
A large platform, it's the next.
And the president is beginning to mold an extremely creditable record in foreign policy, and so on and so forth.
He's now come forward with a major development in the strategic arms limitation talks.
He takes the talks from the exploratory stage to the substance stage.
And although it may still be a long way down the track, it would ultimately be too difficult.
It's made to break through in the arms and build up between the United States and the Soviet Union.
And this after only 18 months of talks.
You know, the point is that you and I know we're going to have an agreement.
We're either going to have an agreement or we're going to have Adam one or the other.
And it'll be an agreement.
Oh, I think we're going to have an agreement.
And so, Franco, you were able to make all of our four points.
Oh, I made all those points while I was at it.
We talked about China.
We talked about your initiatives there.
I left no doubt in his mind that I gave him all the reasons why in December you concluded that the time was right to move to the Soviets on a broad front and why you then moved to China.
That's really true.
We did conclude it in December, didn't we?
Well, you remember, we talked after the Poland uprising, and we concluded that the Soviets would now have to move towards us, and that we should build a bridge for them.
And that's why when Dobrynin called me to say he was going back for Poland, you ordered me to see him and make these propositions.
December the 8th, yeah.
On January the 8th.
After all, they covered Berlin.
They covered a whole range of things.
The fact that the Brennan and the Soviet were willing to correct that text is significant, don't you think?
Oh, God.
He thinks a lot.
Oh, yes, Mr. President, that was.
And I don't know whether you saw that you've got everybody.
Oh, tell me about it.
I haven't read it.
You've got the New York Daily News giving you the whole third page, which is, you know, their whole specific page, the third page being pictures.
Yeah, pictures.
Yeah, go ahead.
New York Daily News.
The New York Daily News has the whole third and the whole fourth page devoted to this, plus the whole editorial column with pictures of you and the column that says, Hard or Cold, Arms Org May Lead to Peace, and a picture of you.
I think the fact that we have to be somewhat modest and not oversold it is going to help us enormously.
Tomorrow, Trump has also said we've got the Democrats in an absolute stew because every reasonable criticism has now been met on salt and only the nuts can oppose us.
Well, okay.
Get a good night's sleep.
We'll see you at 725.
Right.
Right.
Okay.
Bye.

Also recorded on May 21, 1971

  • 253-006 6:34 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:34 pm and 7:05 pm.
  • 253-007 6:34 PM · 46 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles G. ("Bebe") Rebozo met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:34 pm and 7:05 pm.
  • 253-008 6:34 PM · 14 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles G. ("Bebe") Rebozo met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:34 pm and 7:05 pm.
  • 003-113 7:05 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 7:05 pm and 8:30 pm.
  • 003-115 8:36 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, and unknown person(s) talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:36 pm and 8:48 pm.
  • 003-116 8:36 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:36 pm and 8:48 pm.
  • 003-216 8:36 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:36 pm and 8:48 pm.
  • 003-117 8:48 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 8:48 pm.

All 39 conversations from May 21, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 003-114, May 21, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417188467). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/003-114 (accessed November 2, 2026).