{"conversationCode":"006-040","tapeNumber":6,"conversationNumber":40,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-006-040","startDateTime":"1971-06-30T13:23:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1971-06-30T13:45:00.000Z","startDate":"30-Jun-1971","startTime":"9:23 AM","endDate":"30-Jun-1971","endTime":"9:45 AM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"estimated","participants":"Kissinger, Henry A.; Dobrynin, Anatoliy F.; Nixon, Richard M. (President);","description":"On June 30, 1971, Henry A. Kissinger, Anatoliy F. Dobrynin, and President Richard M. Nixon talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:23 am and 9:45 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 006-040 of the White House Tapes.","locationCode":"WHT","recordingDevice":"White House Telephone","latitudeEstimated":38.89767,"longitudeEstimated":-77.03655,"chronCode":1,"chronRelease":"First Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"5-Oct-1999","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 6-40\n\nDate: June 30, 1971\nTime: Unknown between 9:23 am and 9:45 am\nLocation: White House Telephone\n\nHenry A. Kissinger talked with Anatoliy F. Dobrynin.\n\n[See Conversation No. 532-6D]\n\n     Henry A. Kissinger's location\n\n     President's condolences for Cosmonauts' deaths\n           -President's official note to Soviet President\n           -Preparation\n\nThe President talked with Dobrynin.\n\n     President’s role\n\n     Call to President by Julie Nixon Eisenhower\n           -Julie Eisenhower's trip to Athens, Greece\n\n     Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR] Cosmonaut Program\n         -Loss of US astronauts in Apollo I fire","filename":["006-040.mp3"],"tapeStart":"00:44:48","tapeEnd":"00:46:17","participantsList":["Kissinger, Henry A.","Dobrynin, Anatoliy F.","Nixon, Richard M. (President)"],"prevCode":"006-039","nextCode":"006-041","transcript":[{"start":0.03,"end":0.99,"text":"Hello."},{"start":1.13,"end":1.95,"text":"Hello."},{"start":2.45,"end":3.25,"text":"Hello, Anatole."},{"start":3.27,"end":3.6,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":3.62,"end":4.16,"text":"Come on, Henry."},{"start":4.21,"end":4.74,"text":"How are you?"},{"start":4.88,"end":6.94,"text":"I'm sitting here with the president."},{"start":6.96,"end":7.46,"text":"Yes."},{"start":7.48,"end":16.33,"text":"And he wanted me to express to you personally his sorrow at what happened with the cosmonauts."},{"start":16.65,"end":17.51,"text":"Well, thank you very much."},{"start":17.69,"end":22.91,"text":"We will send over a formal message to your president."},{"start":22.93,"end":24.04,"text":"Yes, sir."},{"start":24.06,"end":25.08,"text":"But he wanted me to."},{"start":25.53,"end":26.54,"text":"Thank you very much."},{"start":26.92,"end":30.43,"text":"Make sure, in fact, the President wants to say a word to you himself."},{"start":30.65,"end":30.95,"text":"Yes."},{"start":31.35,"end":32.27,"text":"Thank you very much."},{"start":33.8,"end":33.91,"text":"Hello."},{"start":34.38,"end":35.12,"text":"Hello, Mr. President."},{"start":35.22,"end":38.7,"text":"I wanted you to know that this message is not just the usual one."},{"start":38.74,"end":51.4,"text":"I dictated it myself and that, interestingly enough, my daughter Julie is in Athens, you know, and she called me on the phone, got me up at 7.30 this morning to say that she had just heard it."},{"start":51.52,"end":57.17,"text":"So we just want you to know that wherever brave men are in the world, our deepest sympathy goes to them and"},{"start":57.15,"end":80.53,"text":"we know that uh that your program will continue as ours will you remember we had three that were lost to one time yes but we just want you to know that this is uh this is from the heart message to my government we will the thing that you can you can point out to your government that as i said that are my daughter called and these little personal things we won't put out"},{"start":80.51,"end":83.09,"text":"in our formal message, but I want you to know that."},{"start":83.25,"end":85.02,"text":"And I really do appreciate it."},{"start":85.04,"end":85.87,"text":"Thank you very much."},{"start":85.93,"end":86.33,"text":"Fine."},{"start":87.58,"end":88.85,"text":"Thank you."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"President Nixon, supported by Henry Kissinger, held a telephone conversation with Soviet Ambassador Anatoliy Dobrynin to express his personal condolences following the tragic deaths of Soviet cosmonauts. Nixon emphasized his genuine empathy by sharing a personal anecdote about receiving the news from his daughter, Julie, and drew parallels to the loss of American astronauts in the Apollo 1 fire. The call served to bolster diplomatic relations by conveying a heartfelt, non-routine message of solidarity between the two spacefaring nations.","topics":["Soviet Cosmonaut Program","Diplomatic Relations","U.S.-Soviet Relations","Space Exploration","Condolences"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-05T22:09:22.952Z"},"topicSlugs":["soviet-cosmonaut-program","diplomatic-relations","u-s-soviet-relations","space-exploration","condolences"],"audioDurationSec":89,"audioFiles":[{"file":"006-040.mp3","bytes":2133857,"durationSec":88.81,"bitrate":192220,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:21.078Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/006-040.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/006-040","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/6/conversation-006-040","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}