Conversation 020-108

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Hello.

Quite a welcome.

Well, that was nice.

Wasn't it great?

Yeah, I thought your remark came through very well, too.

Well, we got in all the fun.

Right.

Very good.

Great.

Yeah.

Very well.

Yeah.

Well, we can all rest in peace.

I'm going to try to be quite general because, you know, the less that I can say, the less I say on some of these, you know, well, pounding on the commitment of the timeline and all that sort of thing.

It takes time, but you can say it.

Okay.

But then I wouldn't repeat it too much.

No, I think we've said it.

But look, John, that's not an issue.

I mean, it's the Nixon Doctrine.

What I mean is, if I don't cover it adequately, you do it.

I will.

Well, I don't think we have to be defensive about it.

I'll tell you what got off the goddamn carnal of this piece in the Post, and the Post had this big eight-column head.

Nixon agreed to withdraw from Taiwan.

We agreed to withdraw from Taiwan.

We agreed to withdraw from Taiwan when there is a peaceful settlement.

That's what we said.

That's always been our convention.

Well, yes, and the reduction of forces, of course, has to do with the Nixon doctrine.

Good.

I think also, if you don't mind, I may say in my meeting the second day,

The foreign minister gave me the standard communist line, and I took him on really pretty hard.

And I thought I might refer to that a little bit to let him know we did.

No, no, no, that we were there.

Because, you see, my meeting was all cold steel.

I mean, it was gentlemanly, but I can't disclose.

You can say, well, by God, we talked about this.

For example, he talked about getting troops out of every place.

I said, let me ask you a question.

You know we have troops in Europe.

We have them there not because we want to dominate Europe, because they want us to have our troops there.

We have them there because twice we've had a world war and we've killed the fair court.

This is the way we think we can help.

Tell them that tomorrow.

I said, let me ask you a question.

Would you like to have us withdraw our troops today?

And he sort of stumbled around.

He knows the Russians.

That's right.

I said, you know the threat.

You know the threat that we have there, the Soviet Union.

Are you serious when you say we should withdraw all our troops?

Good, good, good.

You know, I think a few things like that.

I, incidentally, made that very same point with Joe.

I said, all right.

But I did it also with regard to Japan.

I hit him very hard.

I said, now, look, if we get out of Japan, you want a neutral Japan.

I understand.

I take that position.

you realize that that is an impossibility.

Japan isn't going to sit there if we withdraw.

We will have no influence with Japan.

We can't keep them out of Korea and out of Taiwan.

We'll have no influence.

They won't listen to us.

We've got to maintain our treaty connection.

He talked to me about the revolution, liberation revolution, and they talked about Africa.

I said, I have an advantage over you.

I've been in Africa.

I said, they don't want a revolution.

They want peace and quiet and prosperity.

They've had their revolutions.

They're independent now, and they need some time to...

But I think a few things like that leaders would like, don't you?

That's right.

Absolutely.

Incidentally, don't limit yourself.

I've scheduled the cabinet meeting a half hour later so we can take the purple two hours.

Good.

Now, one thing that I want to tell you is that I have arranged that there will be a good lead tomorrow.

When I saw Joe in the morning, just before we left,

I have raised with them the idea of future visitors.

It isn't covered in the communique with our political leaders.

I said, no, there are two people.

I said, there ought to be bipartisan, but I was very candid.

I said, I don't think it would be probably a good idea to have political candidates because that might be a problem.

But I said, on the other hand, the majority leader of the Senate and the minority leader of the Senate are both very interested in China.

They both applied to come.

And if the two of them could be invited, that would be good.

And he didn't respond at that point.

In the morning, he said, I agree that we should.

And he said, you can tell them when you return.

that we would like them to visit China together.

That's good.

So I'm going to announce that at the leaders' meeting.

That's good.

Senator Mansfield and Senator Scott are going to go.

That's a good thing.

I'm going to tell Mike and Hugh, I'll get them in five minutes before.

And that'll get Mike really steamed up.

That'll be good.

Mr. President, you can say a word about that Mao meeting, because that's about the fact that...

Whatever it was that they suggested this and did it at the last minute.

See, their foreign minister is fifth in protocol.

So if I went, they'd have to have him, and then they've got two other people that they have to invite.

Something like that, just to take the edge off.

I'll do it.

I'll have it.

You know, one other thing I might mention, if you're sorry with you, is that the foreign minister told me that they would invite Americans to the Canton Fair.

Now that's very significant.

That's where they do all their business.

Good?

All right.

Thanks.

We'll get some sleep.