Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 13 › Conversation 013-018

Nixon phone call with Haldeman on United Nations and Taiwan

Tuesday, October 26, 1971 · 8:01 PM–8:07 PM ET · White House Telephone · 6 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation013-018 on Tape 13 (tape position 00:30:32–00:36:30)StartTuesday, October 26, 1971 at 8:01 PMEndTuesday, October 26, 1971 at 8:07 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 013-018 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H.R. Haldeman discuss the political fallout of the United Nations vote on Taiwan and the administration's strategy to manage domestic reaction. The conversation centers on coordinating efforts to prevent influential figures like Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley, Jr. from public dissent, with Henry Kissinger facilitating communications to keep them aligned. Nixon evaluates the performance of Secretary of State William P. Rogers during the crisis and confirms his reliance on John Mitchell to help manage key political stakeholders.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 3 minutes of this recording (about 56% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Well, I got Henry out.
I got him to bed.
He's in pretty good spirits, isn't he?
Oh, sure.
Yeah.
Did he call Reagan?
Yeah, he called him, and he's going to call him again tomorrow.
Yeah.
We're on the course.
Let's follow it through.
Yeah.
And they were really going to cut their water off.
The main thing was that Kip, which was, well, Joe Henry, but I think, too, it's important to say that he was really pretty disgusted by those who voted against us, not because of this, this, this attack.
They, you know.
Don't you agree?
Yeah.
He's tired.
I'm sure he doesn't feel that he's doing very well with that.
Yes.
He's doing a ton easier overall.
Encouraging.
Well, it's going to be a hell of a tough trip.
Yeah.
But I think all of that will tend to .
It sure is.
It's the goddamn thing we can do in this UN.
We can't just throw off the UN rather than us.
No.
Do you want me to have a talk?
No, I don't.
And nobody else seems to have a good point.
There really isn't any other...
I don't know if I should draft this over.
There really isn't any other way to take Bob.
But you'll see.
Yeah.
That, I think, like Mitchell felt that just doing that at this point was all you should do.
And you get a little feel of what the reaction is.
Right.
that may be covered because you've got
They've got so much other stuff that they didn't look to what they've gained.
An awful lot, too, of course.
I think Roger did well.
I think so, yeah.
I think he did pretty well.
It was a tragic day.
Yeah.
I can't expect him to say, well, we're going to cut off, and we're going to hit them.
He can't say that.
No, but he purposely, as he said, tried to make the, get the point, but we weren't sure.
Okay.
The Reagan thing is...
The problem is the fact that we've got to keep him from, you know, jumping off the reservation.
I don't know why.
I think that Mitchell should be able to help there.
Oh, yeah.
That's right.
Reagan can't go anyplace with this coming along.
He can't get out.
He's dressed a lot of people.
I don't know if Mitchell has any other thoughts on that.
Nope.
He wanted to think about it.
Okay.

NARA Description

On October 26, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 8:01 pm to 8:07 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 013-018 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 013-018

Date: October 26, 1971
Time: 8:01 pm - 8:07 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

     Henry A. Kissinger
         -Calls to Ronald W. Reagan
         -Forthcoming call to William F. Buckley, Jr.

       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542

     United Nations [UN] vote on Taiwan
          -George H.W. Bush
          -Peoples Republic of China [PRC]
          -President's forthcoming trip
          -Vote in UN
          -Possible US reaction
                -Bush
                -John N. Mitchell's view
                -Reagan
                -Buckley

     Supreme Court

     UN vote on Taiwan
         -William P. Rogers previous press conference
               -The President’s view
         -Rogers’ statement after vote
         -Reagan
               -Mitchell

Also recorded on October 27, 1971

  • 012-131 8:55 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and William P. Rogers talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:55 pm and 8:59 pm.
  • 013-019 9:40 AM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:40 am and 12:23 pm.
  • 603-001 9:40 AM · 2 hr 36 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander P. Butterfield, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Stephen B. Bull, Henry A. Kissinger, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:40 am to 12:22 pm.
  • 603-002 12:22 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:22 pm and 12:23 pm.
  • 013-020 12:23 PM · 13 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Tricia Nixon Cox talked on the telephone from 12:23 pm to 12:26 pm.
  • 603-003 12:23 PM · 29 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, Tricia Nixon Cox, Rose Mary Woods, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:23 pm to 12:52 pm.
  • 013-021 12:36 PM · 1 min — Rose Mary Woods, White House operator, and unknown person(s) talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:36 pm and 12:52 pm.
  • 603-004 12:53 PM · 15 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:53 pm to 1:10 pm.

All 24 conversations from October 27, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 013-018, October 27, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/013-018 (accessed October 12, 2026).