Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 18 › Conversation 018-014
Nixon, Rogers & Mitchell on Ambassadorship to Japan and Fredrick M. Eaton
Monday, January 3, 1972 · 4:44 PM–5:15 PM ET · White House Telephone · 5 min
AI Summary
President Nixon, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, and Attorney General John N. Mitchell discuss potential candidates for the U.S. Ambassadorship to Japan. The group decides to reject Fredrick M. Eaton for the position due to concerns over his age and the likelihood of a contentious confirmation process during an election year, while agreeing to offer him a future appointment. The participants pivot to vetting Robert S. Ingersoll, with the President tasking Rogers with evaluating whether Ingersoll’s professional background and personal toughness are suitable for the diplomatic post.
- Ambassadorship to Japan
- Fredrick M. Eaton
- Robert S. Ingersoll
- Political Appointments
- Diplomacy
Audio
Transcript (AI-generated)
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Hello.
Hello, Mr. President.
Bill, I forgot to mention one thing to you.
Manolo gone.
Oh, he went away.
Okay, fine.
I was going to say that Flanagan...
or I guess you or somebody has reported that Fred Eden now wants to take the job.
Well, I just wanted you to know that my view is for reasons that have nothing to do with the conflict that he is...
I agree with you, you know what I mean.
On the other hand, I think that...
It's got to be handled very discreetly, and I would hope that you would, to the effect that you've made the check and that we figure there's just going to be a hell of a fight and we think we better not do it.
How do you think we can do it?
Sure, sure.
Because I can easily see, maybe you tell him, I can easily see that he just isn't the man for the job.
I think that's right.
The age and everything else.
I can handle it.
I'll just put it on.
He left it up to us, and I'm going to take the responsibility, and I'll say I've checked it out, and I think we've run into a fight.
Nobody would tell us any time.
I don't know what happened that he decided all of a sudden he's...
And Vince Lee wants to take it.
Maybe they went on the mountaintop and thought it would be a great idea.
But my God.
And incidentally, it isn't really quite that...
uh devious because there would be a hell of a fight oh there's no doubt about it yeah and and we just think that it would be we just decided the fight's going to be too rough and that we need somebody there now and so forth what i thought i might tell them but i want to get your approval is to say that you know for 10 months and that's what we're talking about between that election yeah uh it would probably be a lot through four months
So we wouldn't get there for six months.
That's right.
And also that there are very important things going on right now, and that we need them right now.
Well, what would you think about sort of leaving out the hope that after election that we'd like to consider him for something else, consider him for high post?
absolutely absolutely you could say that immediately afterwards that I think that we'd have no problem at all and that I think that you want to talk to him after that I'd like to and that also because after that we we would hope to have a mandate and with that we wouldn't have these fights that these fights always apparently are going to occur in election year and we've talked
You don't want to reveal the sources, but we've talked to the people we have utter confidence in, and that's that.
I'll do that.
There's no problem there.
Peter mentioned a fellow named Ingersoll.
Do you know him from Fort Warner?
He's a good man.
Another one that occurred to me was the Peterson that did the trade thing.
He's already in the other job as president.
Oh, the U.N.
I had forgotten that.
I'd forgotten that.
It's all been announced and everything.
In fact, I think he's sworn in today or something.
Ingersoll would be good.
The difficulty is he's not the strongest man in the world.
He'd be a good man.
His father was the strong man.
He's a hell of a fellow, and this guy's a sweet guy, a really wonderful guy.
Well, let's not get anybody too sweet.
I think you need somebody that's not.
And I'd just like to get a little feel.
I don't know.
I think Pete ought to check a little.
with a few tough Illinois types to see really how tough he really is.
Okay.
And there was one other that, did Pete mention you?
I mentioned it.
He mentioned John McCone, but I don't really, he's too old.
He's over 70.
Forget it.
Well, Ingersoll, tell you, take a look at him yourself.
Will you do that?
Yes, I will.
Because we could consider him for something else.
He is a very good friend of mine.
He's a hell of a fellow.
Now, another one, of course, who would be great is Galvin.
The difficulty is that I think that John Mitchell sitting right here, I think we want to keep him in Illinois.
John, isn't that correct?
How about, let me ask John, do you know Ingersoll?
Could he do Japan?
John thinks Ingersoll could do Japan.
Let me just put it this way.
You get a hold of Pete, and then say, bring him in, and you look him over, and if you think he can do it, let's go with him.
Fair enough?
He's a, he's a, well, got to.
Let me see what kind of a company does he have.
Borg Warner.
Does that pose any problem?
I don't think so.
No, no, no.
Ambassadors are no conflict of interest, and they probably don't do, I hope, not much business.
It's a good company, though.
Yeah.
All right.
All right.
That'll be fine.
Well, I'll take care of Eaton.
Fine.
Okay, Mr. Pitt.
Thank you.
But promise him something afterwards.
Oh, I will.
Tell him that I would very much like for him to consider a post afterwards.
You know, he'd be good for NATO, you know, or something like that.
Or something else.
Right.
Fine.
All right.
Fine, Mr. Pitt.
NARA Description
On January 3, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, William P. Rogers, unknown person(s), and John N. Mitchell talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:44 pm and 5:15 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 018-014 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 18-14
Date: January 3, 1972
Time: Unknown between 4:44 pm and 5:15 pm
Location: White House Telephone
The President talked with William P. Rogers.
[See Conversation No. 643-13B]
Greetings
[The President conferred with an unknown man.]
Manolo Sanchez's location
[End of conferral]
Appointments
-Ambassadorship to Japan
-Fredrick M. Eaton's possible appointment
-Peter M. Flanigan statement
-Handling
-Possible fight
-Age
-Rogers's role
-Controversy over appointment
-Election
-Alternate job after election
-Robert S. Ingersoll
-Possible post
-Flanigan
-Borg-Warner Corporation
-Rudolph A. Peterson
-United Nations [UN] job
-Flanigan
-Illinois
-John A. McCone
-Age
-Ingersoll
-Other jobs
-Robert W. Galvin
-UN job
-John N. Mitchell's opinion
[The President conferred with John N. Mitchell.]
-Ingersoll
-Possible Ambassadorship
-Japan
[End of conferral]
-Rogers's forthcoming evaluation
-Flanigan
-Borg-Warner
-Business contacts
Eaton
-Alternate job
-Post after election
-North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]Also recorded on January 3, 1972
- 018-013 4:44 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:44 pm and 5:15 pm.
- 087-002 4:44 PM · 5 min — Unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 4:44 pm on January 3, 1972 and 2:45 pm on January 20, 1972.
- 087-003 4:44 PM — a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 4:44 pm on January 3, 1972 and 2:45 pm on January 20, 1972.
- 087-004 4:44 PM — Unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 4:44 pm on January 3, 1972 and 2:45 pm on January 20, 1972.
- 087-005 4:44 PM — a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 4:44 pm on January 3, 1972 and 2:45 pm on January 20, 1972.
- 087-006 4:44 PM · 1 min — Unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 4:44 pm on January 3, 1972 and 2:45 pm on January 20, 1972.
- 087-007 4:44 PM · 3 min — a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 4:44 pm on January 3, 1972 and 2:45 pm on January 20, 1972.
- 087-008 4:44 PM — Michael J. Farrell, David N. Parker, and unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 4:44 pm on January 3, 1972 and 2:45 pm on January 20, 1972.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 018-014, January 3, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/018-014 (accessed October 12, 2026).