{"conversationCode":"014-049","tapeNumber":14,"conversationNumber":49,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-014-049","startDateTime":"1971-11-11T21:29:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1971-11-11T21:32:00.000Z","startDate":"11-Nov-1971","startTime":"4:29 PM","endDate":"11-Nov-1971","endTime":"4:32 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"certain","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); White House operator; Scott, Hugh; Kissinger, Henry A.;","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.","locationCode":"WHT","recordingDevice":"White House Telephone","latitudeEstimated":38.89767,"longitudeEstimated":-77.03655,"chronCode":2,"chronRelease":"Second Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"26-Oct-2000","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 14-49\n\nDate: November 11, 1971\nTime: 4:29 pm - 4:32 pm\nLocation: White House Telephone\n\nThe President talked with the White House operator.\n\n     Hugh Scott\n\nThe President talked with Scott.\n\n[See Conversation No. 298-32A]\n\n     Scott's birthday\n           -Spiro T. Agnew's birthday\n\n     Senate votes\n\n          -Scott's leadership\n          -John C. Stennis amendment\n\n     Foreign military aid\n          -Scott's statements\n          -The President's speeches, November 9\n          -Korea\n          -Vietnam\n          -Michael J. Mansfield's speech\n          -Votes of Richard S. Schweicker and Lowell P. Weicker\n\nHenry A. Kissinger talked with Scott at an unknown time.\n\n     Scott's birthday\n\n     Military Procurement Bill conference report\n           -Norris Cotton\n           -Congressional unity\n\n     Scott's birthday","filename":["014-049.mp3"],"tapeStart":"01:17:19","tapeEnd":"01:20:35","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","White House operator","Scott, Hugh","Kissinger, Henry A."],"prevCode":"014-048","nextCode":"014-050","transcript":[{"start":1.08,"end":4.24,"text":"I have Senator Scott for you now, Mr. President."},{"start":4.26,"end":4.56,"text":"Hello."},{"start":4.72,"end":5.93,"text":"Hello, Mr. President."},{"start":6.17,"end":11.5,"text":"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."},{"start":11.76,"end":11.88,"text":"Oh."},{"start":12.14,"end":12.88,"text":"Your birthday."},{"start":13.16,"end":13.9,"text":"Oh, thank you."},{"start":13.94,"end":20.36,"text":"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."},{"start":20.71,"end":21.08,"text":"Well."},{"start":21.26,"end":21.62,"text":"Okay?"},{"start":21.6,"end":22.6,"text":"I appreciate it."},{"start":22.62,"end":24.02,"text":"I'll pass the word around."},{"start":24.08,"end":27.05,"text":"President Agnew's birthday and mine come very close together."},{"start":27.07,"end":29.11,"text":"Yeah, his was just the other night, the night of the party."},{"start":29.13,"end":30.47,"text":"Yes, he congratulated me."},{"start":30.49,"end":32.03,"text":"This is a nice birthday present."},{"start":32.05,"end":34.48,"text":"We only lost two Republicans, Mr. President."},{"start":34.5,"end":40.37,"text":"I must say that was a tremendous job yesterday and today, and you've just been great in your leadership."},{"start":40.49,"end":43.67,"text":"I lost just two, and I had one of those if I needed them."},{"start":43.65,"end":45.45,"text":"I'll be most grateful, most grateful."},{"start":45.58,"end":47.16,"text":"So I think things are improving."},{"start":47.18,"end":49.96,"text":"And let me tell you, how in the world did you win the Senate Amendment?"},{"start":49.98,"end":51.96,"text":"I can't understand you could have won that darn thing."},{"start":52.48,"end":56.17,"text":"Well, we did some, a little bit of modest arm twisting there."},{"start":56.87,"end":73.53,"text":"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..."},{"start":73.79,"end":75.72,"text":"presence abroad."},{"start":76,"end":80.07,"text":"is going to be torpedoed if we don't continue our aid programs."},{"start":80.09,"end":81.41,"text":"That's what it's all about, isn't it?"},{"start":81.43,"end":82.19,"text":"It certainly is."},{"start":82.27,"end":83.69,"text":"I mean, take Korea."},{"start":83.81,"end":84.99,"text":"Korea is the clearest example."},{"start":85.05,"end":91,"text":"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."},{"start":91.02,"end":92.98,"text":"Well, now, that's a darn good tradeoff, I think."},{"start":93.22,"end":94.16,"text":"I think it is, too."},{"start":94.24,"end":95.14,"text":"Dollars for people."},{"start":95.26,"end":97,"text":"And the same in Vietnam."},{"start":97.02,"end":101.04,"text":"It's a hell of a lot better to have eight casualties in Vietnam than 300."},{"start":101.36,"end":105.37,"text":"And so if we've got to have 500,000 million in aid, it's a lot better."},{"start":105.35,"end":106.09,"text":"than the other way."},{"start":106.13,"end":107.01,"text":"That's another way to look at that."},{"start":107.03,"end":113.28,"text":"Of course, and I made the same point in the five-minute summation because Mike made one of these impassioned emotional speeches."},{"start":113.36,"end":114.21,"text":"I know he always does."},{"start":114.29,"end":121.18,"text":"And I thought we'd cool it off a little, but we got some help from Swika and Wika and several others, Mike."},{"start":121.16,"end":122.54,"text":"How'd you get those?"},{"start":122.92,"end":123.72,"text":"That's curious."},{"start":123.74,"end":125.25,"text":"Just a sort of personal plea."},{"start":125.27,"end":128.07,"text":"I've asked him to give me a birthday present, things like that."},{"start":128.25,"end":128.83,"text":"That's great."},{"start":128.85,"end":129.83,"text":"These little presents."},{"start":130.13,"end":131.29,"text":"Well, that was a marvelous job."},{"start":131.33,"end":133.66,"text":"And here's Henry Kissinger just walked in."},{"start":133.68,"end":134.78,"text":"He wants to congratulate you, too."},{"start":134.8,"end":135.6,"text":"Thank you, sir, very much."},{"start":135.7,"end":136.6,"text":"Well, anyway, here."},{"start":136.66,"end":142.27,"text":"This is Scott."},{"start":142.29,"end":142.63,"text":"He's pretty cute."},{"start":142.94,"end":143.33,"text":"You?"},{"start":143.57,"end":144.17,"text":"Yes."},{"start":144.19,"end":145.25,"text":"Congratulations."},{"start":145.27,"end":146.27,"text":"Thank you very much."},{"start":146.31,"end":148.59,"text":"President said I could take the rest of the night off."},{"start":150.28,"end":153.18,"text":"Well, I hope you get to a birthday party."},{"start":153.2,"end":153.74,"text":"I hope so."},{"start":153.76,"end":157.37,"text":"We have the military procurement bill conference report on now."},{"start":158.37,"end":159.81,"text":"So we might be at that."},{"start":161.09,"end":162.18,"text":"This was really great."},{"start":162.2,"end":166.12,"text":"We only lost two Republicans, and one of them would have been with us if we needed him."},{"start":166.18,"end":167.26,"text":"That was Cotton."},{"start":167.84,"end":169.12,"text":"Isn't that great?"},{"start":169.34,"end":172.16,"text":"It's a low watermark, a high watermark, whatever you call it."},{"start":172.74,"end":174.04,"text":"Well, isn't that terrific?"},{"start":174.06,"end":177.87,"text":"Recently, we've had very great improvement in unity up here."},{"start":178.71,"end":179.37,"text":"Well..."},{"start":179.39,"end":180.23,"text":"I begged a little."},{"start":180.29,"end":181.8,"text":"I told them it was my birthday."},{"start":181.94,"end":186.26,"text":"Well, congratulations on the vote and congratulations on your birthday."},{"start":186.28,"end":188.34,"text":"I hope we can work together for a long time."},{"start":188.37,"end":190.43,"text":"I certainly hope so."},{"start":190.45,"end":191.57,"text":"Best of luck to you, too."},{"start":191.73,"end":192.27,"text":"Thank you."},{"start":192.37,"end":193.19,"text":"All the best to you."},{"start":193.39,"end":194.21,"text":"Thank you very much."},{"start":194.84,"end":194.97,"text":"Bye."},{"start":195,"end":195.07,"text":"Bye."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"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.","topics":["Hugh Scott","Senate leadership","Foreign military aid","Military procurement","Republican unity","Vietnam War"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T00:00:42.870Z"},"topicSlugs":["hugh-scott","senate-leadership","foreign-military-aid","military-procurement","republican-unity","vietnam-war"],"audioDurationSec":197,"audioFiles":[{"file":"014-049.mp3","bytes":6299224,"durationSec":196.73,"bitrate":256161,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:24.617Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/014-049.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/014-049","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/014/conversation-014-049","catalogNaId":417190629,"catalogUrl":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/417190629","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}