Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 014-036
Date: Thursday, November 11, 1971 at 11:31 AM
Participants: Kissinger, Henry A.; Sonnenfeldt, Helmut ("Hal")
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/014-036

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello.
[0:01] Yes, Henry.
[0:02] Hal, could you do some talking points for Watson, which he should take into Pompidou, which just frankly explain the problem to him, saying there are two possibilities, that what we really most want is a preliminary meeting with him before we talk to the others, yet the only place to do that is in the Western Hemisphere.
[0:27] If he wants us to go over there, we must see the others.
[0:33] What we most want is to, we don't care about the protocol part, who sees whom.
[0:40] What we want is a chance to talk to him first.
[0:44] Could you?
[0:45] Okay, I've just been racking up all the various possible combinations here, and I'm up to number five, but if you want, stop doing that and do the talk lines first.
[0:54] Well, what are they possibly?
[0:55] Well, they're most of the ones that we talked about.
[0:57] I just thought I ought to systematically think them through.
[1:00] None of them are really very good.
[1:03] So I think that Watts and Otto go in and see Pompidou again tomorrow.
[1:07] Okay.
[1:07] Well, let me simply draft a message with the points you should make.
[1:11] Yeah, but it is to go to my back channel.
[1:13] Oh, yeah, sure.
[1:15] But don't send it yet.
[1:16] Let me see it first.
[1:16] No, no, I'll have it for you.
[1:18] Okay, good.
[1:19] Bye.