Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 14 › Conversation 014-049

Nixon, Scott & Kissinger on Senate leadership and Foreign military aid

Thursday, November 11, 1971 · 4:29 PM–4:32 PM ET · White House Telephone · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); White House operator; Scott, Hugh; Kissinger, Henry A.Conversation014-049 on Tape 14 (tape position 01:17:19–01:20:35)StartThursday, November 11, 1971 at 4:29 PMEndThursday, November 11, 1971 at 4:32 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 014-049 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417190629 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon calls Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott to extend birthday wishes and commend him for his successful leadership in securing a key Senate vote on a foreign military aid amendment. The conversation focuses on the strategic value of providing foreign assistance to reduce U.S. troop levels in regions like Korea and Vietnam. Henry Kissinger joins briefly to offer further congratulations and acknowledge Scott's recent progress in fostering Republican unity during legislative proceedings.

Audio

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NARA Description

On November 11, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, Hugh Scott, and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone from 4:29 pm to 4:32 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 014-049 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 14-49

Date: November 11, 1971
Time: 4:29 pm - 4:32 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with the White House operator.

     Hugh Scott

The President talked with Scott.

[See Conversation No. 298-32A]

     Scott's birthday
           -Spiro T. Agnew's birthday

     Senate votes

          -Scott's leadership
          -John C. Stennis amendment

     Foreign military aid
          -Scott's statements
          -The President's speeches, November 9
          -Korea
          -Vietnam
          -Michael J. Mansfield's speech
          -Votes of Richard S. Schweicker and Lowell P. Weicker

Henry A. Kissinger talked with Scott at an unknown time.

     Scott's birthday

     Military Procurement Bill conference report
           -Norris Cotton
           -Congressional unity

     Scott's birthday

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.

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I have Senator Scott for you now, Mr. President.
Hello.
Hello, Mr. President.
You'd guess that normally I'd be calling you because of a vote I'm very pleased with, but I'm doing it for a more important reason.
Oh.
Your birthday.
Oh, thank you.
And I just hope you have a, and you just go home and say that I said you would take the night off, come hell or high water.
Well.
Okay?
I appreciate it.
I'll pass the word around.
President Agnew's birthday and mine come very close together.
Yeah, his was just the other night, the night of the party.
Yes, he congratulated me.
This is a nice birthday present.
We only lost two Republicans, Mr. President.
I must say that was a tremendous job yesterday and today, and you've just been great in your leadership.
I lost just two, and I had one of those if I needed them.
I'll be most grateful, most grateful.
So I think things are improving.
And let me tell you, how in the world did you win the Senate Amendment?
I can't understand you could have won that darn thing.
Well, we did some, a little bit of modest arm twisting there.
You know, you have put the thing right in proper perspective, you and I, when I didn't, I tried to in my remarks in New York and Chicago the other night in a general sense, but basically when you say the whole prospect of our reducing American...
presence abroad.
is going to be torpedoed if we don't continue our aid programs.
That's what it's all about, isn't it?
It certainly is.
I mean, take Korea.
Korea is the clearest example.
You've been there, and you know very well we've been able to reduce by 20,000 in Korea because we increased the assistance side.
Well, now, that's a darn good tradeoff, I think.
I think it is, too.
Dollars for people.
And the same in Vietnam.
It's a hell of a lot better to have eight casualties in Vietnam than 300.
And so if we've got to have 500,000 million in aid, it's a lot better.
than the other way.
That's another way to look at that.
Of course, and I made the same point in the five-minute summation because Mike made one of these impassioned emotional speeches.
I know he always does.
And I thought we'd cool it off a little, but we got some help from Swika and Wika and several others, Mike.
How'd you get those?
That's curious.
Just a sort of personal plea.
I've asked him to give me a birthday present, things like that.
That's great.
These little presents.
Well, that was a marvelous job.
And here's Henry Kissinger just walked in.
He wants to congratulate you, too.
Thank you, sir, very much.
Well, anyway, here.
This is Scott.
He's pretty cute.
You?
Yes.
Congratulations.
Thank you very much.
President said I could take the rest of the night off.
Well, I hope you get to a birthday party.
I hope so.
We have the military procurement bill conference report on now.
So we might be at that.
This was really great.
We only lost two Republicans, and one of them would have been with us if we needed him.
That was Cotton.
Isn't that great?
It's a low watermark, a high watermark, whatever you call it.
Well, isn't that terrific?
Recently, we've had very great improvement in unity up here.
Well...
I begged a little.
I told them it was my birthday.
Well, congratulations on the vote and congratulations on your birthday.
I hope we can work together for a long time.
I certainly hope so.
Best of luck to you, too.
Thank you.
All the best to you.
Thank you very much.
Bye.
Bye.

Also recorded on November 11, 1971

  • 014-047 4:22 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, and Julie Nixon Eisenhower talked on the telephone from 4:22 pm to 4:24 pm.
  • 298-028 4:22 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Julie Nixon Eisenhower met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:22 pm to 4:24 pm.
  • 014-048 4:24 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:24 pm and 4:29 pm.
  • 298-029 4:24 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:24 pm and 4:29 pm.
  • 298-030 4:24 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:24 pm and 4:29 pm.
  • 298-031 4:24 PM · 24 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:24 pm and 4:29 pm.
  • 298-032 4:29 PM · 49 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Hugh Scott, Henry A. Kissinger, White House operator, Stephen B. Bull, and John C. Stennis met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:29 pm to 5:20 pm.
  • 014-050 4:32 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:32 pm and 4:36 pm.

All 111 conversations from November 11, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 014-049, November 11, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417190629). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/014-049 (accessed November 2, 2026).