Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 009-004
Date: Tuesday, September 14, 1971 at 5:39 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Rogers, William P.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/009-004

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:01] Hello, Mr. President.
[0:02] Hi, Bill.
[0:02] How are you?
[0:03] Good, thanks.
[0:03] I just wanted to take a minute.
[0:04] Go right ahead.
[0:06] I was in the barber shop when you called.
[0:09] He's a good barber.
[0:10] Milton, yeah.
[0:11] I could use him any time.
[0:12] He's over there now, as a matter of fact.
[0:14] Yeah, well, I do.
[0:15] You recommended him.
[0:16] I appreciate it.
[0:17] I wanted to alert you to something that may cause a little problem.
[0:22] Senator Montoya, who hasn't been active in the Vietnam thing, has a resolution or amendment which he is going to...
[0:30] I guess, attempt to attach to the military procurement.
[0:34] Oh, the draft?
[0:35] Yeah.
[0:36] Well, the military procurement.
[0:37] Oh, I see.
[0:39] Which, in effect, will say that none of the money can be used in Vietnam unless there's a fairly free contested election.
[0:51] And it will attract, I'm afraid, a hell of a lot of support because on the face of it, it looks pretty attractive.
[0:57] Furthermore, Chu has recently made a statement that if,
[1:00] military assistance was cut off, that he would then resign.
[1:06] So Montoya will argue, well, this is a way to bring about a contested election because if Chu and Key resign, then they'll have to have an election.
[1:14] So I'm not being against your policy in Vietnam.
[1:17] I'm helping your policy in Vietnam.
[1:19] It also fits into Jackson's position.
[1:23] I just wanted to alert you to it.
[1:24] I think that I'll talk to Henry about it.
[1:26] It's something that could cause us some trouble.
[1:29] Sure could.
[1:30] We'll send a copy of it out to Bunker.
[1:33] The difficulty with the damn thing is that nobody has a very good solution.
[1:37] None of us like the idea of having to resign, and it's too late to get an election now.
[1:45] But anyway... And they know that, too.
[1:47] They know that.
[1:48] Well, I wanted to alert you to it, and because...
[1:50] When will it be?
[1:51] Well, it could...
[1:52] He's offered it, but it didn't get much attention.
[1:55] But if it comes up on the floor, it could come up within the next several days.
[2:00] Yeah, yeah.
[2:01] That's a tough one, isn't it?
[2:02] You know, you stop to think of it there.
[2:04] On the plus side, at least in Vietnam, they did have an election for Congress.
[2:08] That's right.
[2:09] And Q at least has said that they have a referendum.
[2:15] Yeah, and that I'll get out and fight if the ballots are not enough.
[2:18] And also you can look at the 50 new countries, however many there are since World War II, and you've probably only got three where there's anybody that's been elected.
[2:26] who has office, who is there as a result of a contested election.
[2:29] And a parliamentary election was a pretty fair election.
[2:32] Oh, no question.
[2:33] I tried.
[2:34] Well, neither that, we can't argue it, can we?
[2:36] No, I just wanted to let you know.
[2:38] I appreciate your calling.
[2:40] We'll try to work out something.
[2:41] I'll give Henry a call and see what we can work out.
[2:44] Everything else going well, I think.
[2:45] Well, we're sitting around.
[2:46] I appreciated your remarks at the cabinet.
[2:49] Pat got a lot of fine wires on our broadcast.
[2:53] Oh, she was tremendous, I thought.
[2:55] Really a lot of wires.
[2:56] I thought your remarks were great, too.
[2:58] I didn't say much about that because it was really Pat's day, but I thought yours were very good.
[3:04] Well, sometimes those programs do more good than we think, too.
[3:07] I'll say.
[3:07] I think it was nice to have the women, didn't you, for this kind of thing?
[3:10] Oh, the women, really appreciate it.
[3:12] And giving them a little feel of, you know, the whole thing.
[3:14] Adele, appreciate it very much.
[3:16] Particularly a good subject, too.
[3:17] Very good.
[3:18] Okay, Mr. Fred.
[3:19] Okay.
[3:19] Thank you very much.
[3:19] Bye.