Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 16 › Conversation 016-014

Nixon phone call with Rogers on India-Pakistan War and US Foreign Policy

Monday, December 6, 1971 · 9:19 AM–9:24 AM ET · White House Telephone · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Rogers, William P.Conversation016-014 on Tape 16 (tape position 00:35:33–00:40:29)StartMonday, December 6, 1971 at 9:19 AMEndMonday, December 6, 1971 at 9:24 AMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 016-014 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Secretary of State William P. Rogers discuss the administration's strategy for managing congressional and public perceptions regarding the escalating India-Pakistan War. Nixon emphasizes the importance of highlighting the administration’s humanitarian record and maintaining strict neutrality to avoid domestic political fallout. They agree that Rogers will hold a limited briefing for key senators to keep them informed without escalating the situation into a perceived crisis, and Nixon encourages Rogers to attend the upcoming NATO meeting despite the regional conflict.

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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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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We, uh... Hello.
Hello.
Good morning, Mr. President.
We've got this set now.
It'll be 1.30, and we'll meet in the EOB.
Uh-huh.
Because, uh, the, uh...
Some other meetings will be taking place here.
Uh-huh.
And, uh, at, uh...
Just get a general rundown on the situation, and then if you also could, I think, give the senators a call and tell them that you can come up this afternoon.
Yeah, I've done that already.
I don't know how broadly that should be done, but I think it's a very good idea for at least the record to be out with regard to what we've done on refugees and why we've taken it to the U.N. We are staying out of this thing.
in terms of our military assistance, the fact that we have cut off the military assistance to India, etc.
Because even though we read it all the time and are quite familiar with it, some of them are not as familiar as they might be with this.
You remember Church made this statement to the effect that we were doing absolutely nothing on refugees.
And I told Mansfield about it this morning, and I said, I can't understand that because
You know we've given $250 million.
Mike was aware of it.
So I think it's just one of those things.
I don't think we can keep Church quiet.
I heard him on television last night.
He's going to make a political attack, and all we can do is try to dull the attack.
I don't believe we're going to have much criticism because I think what the American people want is for us to stay out of it.
And I think they want us to do everything we can to bring about a peaceful settlement, which we're trying to do, and to help in the humanitarian way.
I think we have a very good record.
Well, I think your record's good, but let's just don't assume that the record is known.
I mean, keep putting it out.
Apparently, quite a few of these fellows had heard some of the U.N. debate on television.
They said that the Russian-Chinese exchange was rather bitter.
But it was, you know, it's wonderful.
I tell you, the Russians, the Chinese call the Russians social imperialists, and the Russians call the Chinese the social traitors.
It's pretty acrimonious.
And it leaves us in a pretty good position because we haven't had to get involved in the middle.
Right.
Do you think, would you suggest that maybe I see a lot of senators, or just, I wondered about whether, I thought I just talked to the speaker.
I think if you do too many, it builds it up, but I think just doing a few, due to the fact that
they they must be aware of the fact that we're informing them that's all no but i think uh mike suggested that he said they're going to have a vote and they could get a lot of the senators and i said no i don't think that's a good idea that'll make it seem like a crisis so it'll it'll only be a crisis but it also gives a lot of the demagogues a chance to get up and make speeches about the thing that isn't what you want i think that uh just tell mike to have a
and he had a few in their office.
I thought they'd have Mike and you and, unfortunately, Bill and George Aiken and Dennis and somebody else.
That's right.
The Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, maybe... That ought to do it.
That ought to do it.
Because if you go beyond that, it's simply going to be...
A miniature U.N. debate, which is not going to be very useful.
Right.
I also thought I'd tell them at the end that I'd continue to come up periodically to fill them in so we'd keep them fully advised about the results.
Right, right, right.
I'm scheduled to go to this NATO meeting.
I had planned to go to Iceland.
I think I'll skip that, but I think I probably should go to the NATO meeting.
What time is the NATO meeting?
Well, I could leave Wednesday.
It's really Thursday and Friday, but there's a dinner Wednesday night at the Big Four.
Yeah.
I think I probably better go to that.
I think by that time there won't be any.
So what I'll leave is I'll probably leave Wednesday morning and get back Friday night.
I think you should go.
I mean, the world has to go forward.
This conflict is one that was apparently inevitable at some time or other.
It's just unfortunate it had to come for this cause and at this time.
That's right.
Incidentally, is Bush there with you?
No.
No, he isn't.
He's in New York.
I alerted him to the fact that you were calling.
Yeah, I might give him a call.
Fine.
Good.
All right.
Bye.
See you at 1.30.
Bye.
Bye.

NARA Description

On December 6, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers talked on the telephone from 9:19 am to 9:24 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 016-014 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 16-14

Date: December 6, 1971

Time: 9:19 am - 9:24 am
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with William P. Rogers.

[See Conversation No. 629-6B]

     President's schedule
           -Meeting in Executive Office Building [EOB]

     Rogers' schedule
         -Senate meeting

     Pakistan
          -Refugees
          -United Nations [UN]
          -India
                -US military aid
          -Frank F. Church
                -Refugees
          -Michael J. Mansfield
                -Refugees
                     -US aid
          -Church's television appearance, December 5, 1971
          -American opinion
                -Neutrality
                -Peace
                -Humanitarianism
          -Administration record
          -UN debate
                -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]-Peoples Republic of China [PRC]
                     exchange
                     -Acrimony
                     -US position
          -Rogers’ meeting with Senators
                -Mansfield
                -Hugh Scott
                -J. William Fulbright
                -George D. Aiken
                -John C. Stennis
                -Committees
                     -Armed Services

                     -Foreign Affairs

     Rogers schedule
         -North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO] meeting
         -Iceland trip
         -NATO meeting
               -Timing
               -Big Four dinner

     India–Pakistan War
          -President’s view

******************************************************************************

[Previous National Security (B) withdrawal reviewed under MDR guidelines case number
LPRN-T-MDR-2012-005. Segment declassified on 05/28/2015. Archivist: DR]
[National Security]
[016-014-w001]
[Duration: 37s]

     India–Pakistan War
          -Military situation
                -William P. Rogers’s opinion
          -West Pakistan
                -Mountains
          -Kashmir

******************************************************************************

     George H.W. Bush
          -Location
          -Possible telephone call from President

Also recorded on December 6, 1971

  • 016-011 9:00 AM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:00 am and 9:07 am.
  • 016-012 9:07 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers talked on the telephone from 9:07 am to 9:09 am.
  • 629-005 9:07 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:07 am to 9:09 am.
  • 016-013 9:09 AM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:09 am and 9:19 am.
  • 629-006 9:09 AM · 59 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, White House operator, William P. Rogers, George H. W. Bush, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Ronald L. Ziegler, John D. Ehrlichman, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, and Wilbur D. Mills met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:09 am to 10:08 am.
  • 016-015 9:24 AM · 8 sec — Henry A. Kissinger and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:24 am and 9:37 am.
  • 016-133 9:24 AM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:24 am and 9:37 am.
  • 016-016 9:37 AM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and George H. W. Bush talked on the telephone from 9:37 am to 9:42 am.

All 62 conversations from December 6, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 016-014, December 6, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/016-014 (accessed October 10, 2026).