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

Nixon, Kissinger & Bush on India-Pakistan War and United Nations

Monday, December 6, 1971 · 9:37 AM–9:42 AM ET · White House Telephone · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.; Bush, George H. W.Conversation016-016 on Tape 16 (tape position 00:40:41–00:44:41)StartMonday, December 6, 1971 at 9:37 AMEndMonday, December 6, 1971 at 9:42 AMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 016-016 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417191281 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and UN Ambassador George H.W. Bush discuss U.S. strategy regarding the ongoing India-Pakistan War at the United Nations. The President directs Bush to aggressively pursue a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal, insisting that a political settlement must be secondary to stopping the fighting. Nixon also authorizes Bush to take the issue to the General Assembly to build public pressure and instructs him to forcefully counter any domestic political misrepresentations of the administration's position.

Audio

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NARA Description

On December 6, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and George H. W. Bush talked on the telephone from 9:37 am to 9:42 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 016-016 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 16-16

Date: December 6, 1971
Time: 9:37 am - 9:42 am
Location: White House Telephone

Henry A. Kissinger and the President talked with George H.W. Bush.

[See Conversation No. 629-6D]

     India-Pakistan War
           -United Nations [UN] Security Council
                -Bush’s schedule
                      -President’s conversation with William P. Rogers and Kissinger
                            -US position
                -Forthcoming meeting
                      -US position
                            -Ceasefire and withdrawal
                                   -Possible progress
                                   -Veto
                                         -Political settlement
                            -President’s explanation
                            -Ceasefire and end to war
                            -Political settlement
                            -Ceasefire and withdrawal
                                   -Political settlement
                            -Attempted changes
                -UN General Assembly
                      -Resolutions
                      -Vetoes
                            -Rogers and Kissinger
                      -US resolution
                            -Support
                      -President’s view
                -UN Security Council resolution
                      -Newspapers
                            -Political accomendation
                                   -Refugees
                      -Bush’s statement, December 5, 1971
                      -Political issue
                            -Facts
                                   -Political settlement
                                   -Refugees
                      -Congress
                            -Possible misrepresentation of administration position
                                   -Instructions to Bush

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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Hello?
Mr. President, Dr. Kissinger was in your office asking about Mr. Bush.
I have him on the line.
Yeah, yeah.
hello henry george hello mr president george uh you had a rather lively time up there well it's been terribly busy mr president yeah did i uh you you don't think your assignment's been too dull huh no it's been fantastic we all thought to hear i mean i was talking to bill this morning and henry just now that uh you've done extremely well and uh presenting the case
And is there anything coming up immediately today, or is it going to be more of the same?
Well, I think it's more of the same.
We're going to try to get another meeting of the council, Mr. President, to see if the U.S. position that you've put to ceasefire and withdrawal, there's no excuse in the world for us not getting that through.
But we hope to be able to get some progress on it, but so far we're up against the veto.
The veto, because they insist on a political settlement at the same time.
Yes, sir, and what we're trying to do under the
Our policy, which you've spelled out so clearly, is put a tourniquet on and stop the fighting and end the war.
That's right.
Hit that very, very hard because there is absolutely no excuse.
You cannot have a political settlement.
If they say that until you have a political settlement, you will have no ceasefire, you'll have war forever out there because the hatred runs so deep.
We all know that.
They've got to have a ceasefire and a withdrawal first, and then the political settlement can come.
Well, we will keep pushing for that, and your position has been
made very, very clear and there's been frustrating changes, people trying to interpret it incorrectly, but we'll keep plugging away.
Yeah, yeah.
Henry, you want to say anything on this?
George, what's your view on the General Assembly?
Well, sir, what we've, I think, appropriately tried to do is to, you know, one, get some reasonable resolutions that you've been so helpful with on this thing.
Secondly, we've gotten two vetoes now, and if today fails, we'll need some consultations with the Secretary and you to see whether we can, should move to it.
The U.S. resolution should get very, very broad support in the General Assembly.
I think it should go there.
I mean, don't, let me say, just get your own mind thinking in those directions, because I want world public opinion to focus on this thing.
So don't horse around and have to wait to get this cleared and that cleared and the other thing.
We're to go in that direction, okay?
Yes, sir.
All right.
We'll work on it.
Okay.
All right.
True to one other point, I noticed some of the newspapers say that we didn't say anything about political accommodation.
I think we might explain that we did
have a clause in there that speaks about conditions for the return of the refugees.
In our resolution.
Exactly.
My statement on your instructions, President's instructions, make that very clear in our statement last night that we have tried, that the President has tried, but now we want to get this tourniquet on.
Exactly.
Well, another thing that you have to have in mind is that now some all over the world will try to make this basically a political issue, and you've got to do what you can to
More important than anything else now is to get the facts out with regard to what we have done, that we have worked for a political settlement, what we have done for the refugees, and so forth and so on.
Yes, sir.
We'll continue to try to develop that theme here and keep our position from being...
If you see, I want you to watch, too, if you see that some here in the Senate of the House, for whatever reason, get out and misrepresent our opinions, I want you to hit it frontally, strongly, and toughly.
Is that clear?
All right, sir.
I mean, don't... Just take the gloves off and crack it, because you know exactly what we've done, okay?
I understand.
Fine.
All right.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.

Also recorded on December 6, 1971

  • 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.
  • 016-014 9:19 AM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers talked on the telephone from 9:19 am to 9:24 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.
  • 016-017 9:42 AM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, and unknown person(s) talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:42 am and 10:01 am.
  • 016-018 10:01 AM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Wilbur D. Mills talked on the telephone from 10:01 am to 10:06 am.
  • 016-019 10:06 AM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, and John B. Connally talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:06 am and 12:18 pm.

All 59 conversations from December 6, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 016-016, December 6, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417191281). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/016-016 (accessed November 1, 2026).