Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 3 › Conversation 003-127

Nixon, Rogers & Haldeman on China and Foreign Policy

Wednesday, May 26, 1971 · 11:07 AM–11:11 AM ET · White House Telephone · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Rogers, William P.; Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation003-127 on Tape 3 (tape position 03:10:45–03:15:06)StartWednesday, May 26, 1971 at 11:07 AMEndWednesday, May 26, 1971 at 11:11 AMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 003-127 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417188493 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Secretary of State William P. Rogers discussed internal security concerns regarding police violence and coordinated a private strategy meeting regarding sensitive diplomatic outreach to the People's Republic of China. Nixon directed Rogers and Henry Kissinger to prepare comprehensive political and diplomatic arguments for this China policy shift while maintaining a firm presidential posture. The participants agreed to meet privately following a scheduled luncheon with King Faisal to finalize their approach before Rogers’ upcoming trip to Europe.

Audio

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NARA Description

On May 26, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, William P. Rogers, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 11:07 am to 11:11 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 003-127 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 003-127

Date: May 26, 1971
Time: 11:07 am - 11:11 am
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with William P. Rogers.

[See Conversation No. 505-004B]

     President's schedule
          -Golf date with Rogers
                 -[Dwight] David Eisenhower, II's tour in the Mediterranean

     Police shootings in New York, NY
          -Victims
          -Possible legislation
                -John N. Mitchell

     A slaying in Washington, DC
          -Victim
                -Compared with President

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

[Previous PRMPA Privacy (D) reviewed under PRMPA regulations 10/25/2017. Segment
cleared for release.]
[Privacy]
[003-127-w001]
[Duration: 11s]

     A slaying in Washington, DC

             -Thomas W. Fletcher’s daughter Heidi Ann Heins
                 -President’s opinion

     Thomas W. Fletcher’s location
         -San Jose, California

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

     A memo from President
         -Delivery
         -Storage
Show the rest of the log (28 more lines)
     President's schedule
          -Meeting with Henry A. Kissinger and Rogers concerning People's Republic of China
          [PRC]
                 -National Security Council [NSC]
                 -George H.W. Bush
                 -Polls
                       -H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
                 -President's position
                 -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
                 -Chiang Kai-shek
                 -James C.H. Shen
                       -Relations with President
                 -Taiwanese position
                 -United States [US] public opinion
                       -Committee of One Million
                             -Walter H. Judd
                             -Possible talk with Rogers
                 -Date
                       -Haldeman, Kissinger
                       -Roger's trip to Europe

                 -Time
                      -President's meeting with King Malik Faisal ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Saud

The President conferred with Haldeman.

                       -Faisal's arrival
                       -Faisal luncheon

Transcript (AI-generated)

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.
Secretary Rogers.
Hello.
Hello.
Bill.
Hi, Mr. President.
I was hoping to call you to tell you to invite you to play golf.
David's going to leave Saturday for his tour in the Mediterranean, but I can't do it today.
They piled up some more things.
They shot two.
Isn't that horrible, the shooting of those policemen in New York?
And fortunately, one of them was a black.
One had to be shot.
But goddamn, I told Mitchell to get some sort of legislation if he has to break the Constitution to do it.
This is, you know, they shot this poor little bastard here in Washington.
Oh, isn't that awful?
I mean, the guy was, he never had a gun in his hand.
He goes to church in bowls.
I go to church in bowls.
Somebody shoot me in the back, I guess.
Isn't that awful?
Incidentally, I wanted to tell you, I'm going to send over that memorandum that I spoke to you, and I'm going to send it by a military man, and I want it to be delivered privately to you.
Will you take it privately?
Oh, yes, and I'll have it locked up in my own safe.
Oh, that's all right.
That's perfectly all right.
I just want you to see it.
The second thing is that I would like to sit down to talk about the Mideast,
alone with you and Henry, just the three of us.
I don't want to have it in the NSC.
I don't want to get everybody else.
I'm sorry, not the Mideast, but about China.
Yeah, you know, about the China thing.
And Bush raised the thing, you know, on the plane.
But what I would like for you to do, and I've told Henry to do likewise, and he's got to pull everything together and pull all the political considerations and all the other things, and Bob is looking in the polls for it.
What I'd like for you to do is to really get the strongest arguments that you can get, in other words, from your shop, but on the ground, but I'd like to keep it in a posture where it doesn't appear that the president is wavering and all that sort of thing, because as you know, it's a damn close question at the moment, particularly with the Soviet thing going on and a lot of other things, and also with the
with a very negative reaction to shong have you seen the new chinese ambassador yet yes jimmy shan yes you have yes did you talk to him about this not really no because i didn't you know quite know what to say yeah well the uh i'll try to get he's an old friend of mine he translated for me every time i went over there to see the old man and and uh nice fellow but uh well anyway get your get your arguments in a row yeah the thing what
Well, I was going to say the thing that I think that they feel is that they may be let down.
I think the thing they really forget is that if we follow the present policy, we're going to let them down faster.
Well, that's true.
I think, of course, there's this principal thing that they're worried about.
And also there is a problem we've got, which is a very significant one within this country,
as to, I mean, you could start, I mean, it's amazing we've kept the right quieted down on Russia and on China to date.
But there's one thing, you know, they got a committee of one million, Walter Judd and all the rest, and the old gentleman, he can stir up those people.
Might be an idea if we should decide, well, maybe it'd be a good idea either then.
to talk to some of those people.
I know all of them pretty well and get his views on it.
Well, Bob Hall, I'm going to call about the date.
If you and Henry could chat a little to see if neither of you duplicate with regard to repair.
And yes, the three of us will sit down.
Let's take an hour and a half or so and find out what the hell we want to do about it.
That'd be fine.
Because you've got to know before you go to Europe, don't you?
That's right.
What time would it be, you say?
I was just thinking about when you think we might be able to do it.
Tomorrow morning.
That'd be fine.
That'd be good.
Oh, wait a minute.
I've got Faisal.
Well, that's all right.
I can do it earlier than that.
Faisal doesn't take any time.
Well, we can do it in the afternoon.
I've got the afternoon for you.
What is the situation?
Why not do it in the morning?
Well, what time is Faisal's arrival?
10 o'clock.
Good God.
That much time for him?
Okay.
What is the... Well, you're coming to the Faisal lunch?
Yes.
All right.
Right after the Faisal lunch, could you stay and we'll do it then?
That'd be good.
Fair enough.
All right.
Bye.
Bye.
Thank you.
Bye.

Also recorded on May 26, 1971

  • 505-001 9:08 AM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:08 am and 10:03 am.
  • 505-002 9:08 AM · 19 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:08 am and 10:03 am.
  • 505-003 9:08 AM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:08 am and 10:03 am.
  • 505-004 10:03 AM · 1 hr 25 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Henry A. Kissinger, White House operator, William P. Rogers, Rose Mary Woods, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:03 am to 11:35 am.
  • 003-128 11:11 AM · 19 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:11 am and 1:30 pm.
  • 505-005 12:13 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:13 pm to 12:20 pm.
  • 505-006 12:20 PM · 22 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Ronald L. Ziegler, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:20 pm and 12:43 pm.
  • 505-007 12:43 PM · 27 min — President Richard M. Nixon, David K. E. Bruce, Henry A. Kissinger, White House photographer, and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:43 pm to 1:17 pm.

All 75 conversations from May 26, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 003-127, May 26, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417188493). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/003-127 (accessed November 2, 2026).