Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 18 › Conversation 018-054

Nixon, Ziegler & Haig on People's Republic of China and Diplomacy

Monday, January 10, 1972 · 5:29 PM–5:31 PM ET · White House Telephone · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.; Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Conversation018-054 on Tape 18 (tape position 01:59:11–02:01:15)StartMonday, January 10, 1972 at 5:29 PMEndMonday, January 10, 1972 at 5:31 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 018-054 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417192201 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon consulted with Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler regarding his recent preparatory trip to the People's Republic of China, specifically addressing the logistical management of the press corps. Ziegler confirmed that the Chinese were cooperative and had accepted the proposed list of journalists, while also noting that Premier Chou En-lai extended an invitation for the Chinese table tennis team to visit the United States. Following this, the President briefly coordinated with Alexander M. Haig, Jr. to arrange a follow-up meeting at the White House.

Audio

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NARA Description

On January 10, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 5:29 pm to 5:31 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 018-054 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 18-54

Date: January 10, 1972
Time: 5:29 pm - 5:31 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Ronald L. Ziegler.

[See Conversation No. 313-30A]

     Ziegler's trip to the People's Republic of China [PRC]
          -Relations with the Chinese
          -Press trips to the PRC
                  -Number
                        -Gerald L. Warren
                  -Names

     Press trips to the PRC
           -Richard (“Dick”) Wilson, Nicholas P. Thimmesch
           -List of names

     Meeting with Chou En-lai

[The President conferred with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.]

     Haig asked to come into office

[end of conferral]

     Meeting with Chou En-lai
          -Chinese table tennis team visit to the US
               -US Table Tennis Association

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.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).

Hello.
Hello.
Yes, sir.
Well, you must have had quite an experience.
Yes, it was really something.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, it's probably worth all your hour or three years of work, wasn't it, to go over there?
It certainly was an experience.
I appreciate having the opportunity.
Everything is going all right?
Yes, they were very cooperative, extremely cooperative and very warm.
When are you going to let the press know that they're only going to have 80?
In the next week or so.
I discussed that with the Chinese, and we're going to do that the next week.
I had Jerry Warren.
I told him that the question was raised that he should knock down the IDF-200, which some of them have floated.
Right.
I was just talking to Jerry.
And to say that we just, that's part of the question.
Right.
That it's far less than that, so that we do go out at least, because I think the 80 is about the right number.
Did they accept our names pretty well, or down the line?
Town right accepted the whole thing, just as presented.
They were very responsive.
There's no way to, you can't get any, do anything with regard to a Dick Wilson or a Timmish, for example?
Well, I was thinking of them on the basis of they're going to write books.
That's another way that occurred to me, but I don't know.
We did not want to raise any additional numbers there.
I don't mean numbers, but these could be names to substitute if necessary.
Well, there might be a way we could work around that.
That's what Dick Wilson, I think, had on your final list.
He's on the list.
Well, we'll take a look at the Timish one then later.
All right.
Well, the evening that Premier Cho and I received it, he said to me that he wanted the, he felt that the Chinese table tennis team could come to the United States in the spring and asked me to convey that to the president of the table tennis association.
Okay.
That's great.
Well, get some rest.
Thank you, Mr. President.

Also recorded on January 10, 1972

  • 313-027 5:24 PM · 13 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 5:24 pm and 5:27 pm.
  • 018-052 5:27 PM · 36 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 5:27 pm to 5:28 pm.
  • 313-028 5:27 PM · 36 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 5:27 pm to 5:28 pm.
  • 018-053 5:28 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:28 pm and 5:29 pm.
  • 313-029 5:28 PM · 7 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 5:28 pm and 5:29 pm.
  • 313-030 5:29 PM · 18 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., White House operator, John A. Schneider, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 5:29 pm to 5:53 pm.
  • 018-055 5:31 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:31 pm and 5:35 pm.
  • 018-056 5:35 PM · 41 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John A. Scali talked on the telephone from 5:35 pm to 5:36 pm.

All 87 conversations from January 10, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 018-054, January 10, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417192201). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/018-054 (accessed October 29, 2026).