Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 020-108
Date: Monday, February 28, 1972 at 11:05 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Rogers, William P.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/020-108

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello.
[0:01] Quite a welcome.
[0:02] Well, that was nice.
[0:03] Wasn't it great?
[0:08] Yeah, I thought your remark came through very well, too.
[0:11] Well, we got in all the fun.
[0:12] Right.
[0:12] Very good.
[0:14] Great.
[0:18] Great.
[0:20] Yeah.
[0:21] Very well.
[0:23] Yeah.
[0:23] Well, we can all rest in peace.
[0:26] 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.
[0:50] It takes time, but you can say it.
[0:51] Okay.
[0:51] But then I wouldn't repeat it too much.
[0:52] No, I think we've said it.
[0:53] But look, John, that's not an issue.
[0:55] I mean, it's the Nixon Doctrine.
[0:58] What I mean is, if I don't cover it adequately, you do it.
[1:01] I will.
[1:03] Well, I don't think we have to be defensive about it.
[1:05] 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.
[1:13] Nixon agreed to withdraw from Taiwan.
[1:15] We agreed to withdraw from Taiwan.
[1:17] We agreed to withdraw from Taiwan when there is a peaceful settlement.
[1:22] That's what we said.
[1:23] That's always been our convention.
[1:25] Well, yes, and the reduction of forces, of course, has to do with the Nixon doctrine.
[1:31] Good.
[1:52] I think also, if you don't mind, I may say in my meeting the second day,
[2:20] The foreign minister gave me the standard communist line, and I took him on really pretty hard.
[2:27] And I thought I might refer to that a little bit to let him know we did.
[2:33] No, no, no, that we were there.
[2:35] Because, you see, my meeting was all cold steel.
[2:39] I mean, it was gentlemanly, but I can't disclose.
[2:45] You can say, well, by God, we talked about this.
[2:50] For example, he talked about getting troops out of every place.
[2:53] I said, let me ask you a question.
[2:57] You know we have troops in Europe.
[2:58] We have them there not because we want to dominate Europe, because they want us to have our troops there.
[3:04] We have them there because twice we've had a world war and we've killed the fair court.
[3:08] This is the way we think we can help.
[3:10] Tell them that tomorrow.
[3:11] I said, let me ask you a question.
[3:13] Would you like to have us withdraw our troops today?
[3:16] And he sort of stumbled around.
[3:18] He knows the Russians.
[3:19] That's right.
[3:20] I said, you know the threat.
[3:21] You know the threat that we have there, the Soviet Union.
[3:24] Are you serious when you say we should withdraw all our troops?
[3:27] Good, good, good.
[3:28] You know, I think a few things like that.
[3:29] I, incidentally, made that very same point with Joe.
[3:34] I said, all right.
[3:35] But I did it also with regard to Japan.
[3:37] I hit him very hard.
[3:40] I said, now, look, if we get out of Japan, you want a neutral Japan.
[3:44] I understand.
[3:44] I take that position.
[3:45] you realize that that is an impossibility.
[3:48] Japan isn't going to sit there if we withdraw.
[3:51] We will have no influence with Japan.
[3:53] We can't keep them out of Korea and out of Taiwan.
[3:55] We'll have no influence.
[3:56] They won't listen to us.
[3:57] We've got to maintain our treaty connection.
[3:59] He talked to me about the revolution, liberation revolution, and they talked about Africa.
[4:05] I said, I have an advantage over you.
[4:07] I've been in Africa.
[4:08] I said, they don't want a revolution.
[4:10] They want peace and quiet and prosperity.
[4:12] They've had their revolutions.
[4:13] They're independent now, and they need some time to...
[4:18] But I think a few things like that leaders would like, don't you?
[4:21] That's right.
[4:23] Absolutely.
[4:24] Incidentally, don't limit yourself.
[4:26] I've scheduled the cabinet meeting a half hour later so we can take the purple two hours.
[4:32] Good.
[4:32] Now, one thing that I want to tell you is that I have arranged that there will be a good lead tomorrow.
[4:40] When I saw Joe in the morning, just before we left,
[4:43] I have raised with them the idea of future visitors.
[5:03] It isn't covered in the communique with our political leaders.
[5:05] I said, no, there are two people.
[5:05] I said, there ought to be bipartisan, but I was very candid.
[5:07] I said, I don't think it would be probably a good idea to have political candidates because that might be a problem.
[5:09] 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.
[5:12] They both applied to come.
[5:13] And if the two of them could be invited, that would be good.
[5:19] And he didn't respond at that point.
[5:20] In the morning, he said, I agree that we should.
[5:23] And he said, you can tell them when you return.
[5:25] that we would like them to visit China together.
[5:33] That's good.
[5:33] So I'm going to announce that at the leaders' meeting.
[5:34] That's good.
[5:34] Senator Mansfield and Senator Scott are going to go.
[5:36] That's a good thing.
[5:36] I'm going to tell Mike and Hugh, I'll get them in five minutes before.
[5:40] And that'll get Mike really steamed up.
[5:43] That'll be good.
[5:44] Mr. President, you can say a word about that Mao meeting, because that's about the fact that...
[5:49] Whatever it was that they suggested this and did it at the last minute.
[5:55] See, their foreign minister is fifth in protocol.
[5:58] So if I went, they'd have to have him, and then they've got two other people that they have to invite.
[6:03] Something like that, just to take the edge off.
[6:05] I'll do it.
[6:06] I'll have it.
[6:07] 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.
[6:15] Now that's very significant.
[6:18] That's where they do all their business.
[6:21] Good?
[6:21] All right.
[6:22] Thanks.
[6:22] We'll get some sleep.