Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 21 › Conversation 021-015

Nixon phone call with Haig on Henry Kissinger and William P. Rogers

Tuesday, March 7, 1972 · 2:26 PM–2:27 PM ET · White House Telephone · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Conversation021-015 on Tape 21 (tape position 00:38:31–00:40:37)StartTuesday, March 7, 1972 at 2:26 PMEndTuesday, March 7, 1972 at 2:27 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 021-015 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Alexander Haig coordinate the scheduling of an upcoming meeting with Henry Kissinger at the Executive Office Building. The conversation briefly reviews Secretary of State William P. Rogers' recent, successful press conference regarding foreign policy and his role in the Peking summit. Nixon also discusses his firm rejection of State Department involvement in his meetings with heads of state, emphasizing the need to maintain presidential control over diplomatic proceedings.

Audio

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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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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.
General Haig.
Hello.
Yes, sir.
Al, is Henry isn't back yet?
No, he's over with Secretary Connolly.
He should be back shortly.
Yeah.
Fine.
When he gets back, would you have him, if it's before 10 minutes till 3, I have to leave there to go over to a meeting.
All right.
Have him drop over to the EOB.
Fine, we'll do that.
Oh, okay, yeah.
Well, I want to thank you again, sir, for your... Oh, fine.
Wow.
Very appreciated.
Nobody deserves it more.
Yeah.
How did the... Well, we're delighted to be here.
How did Roger Singh, have you been able to read it?
It went very well.
I've gone over the whole thing.
He did a beautiful job.
Good.
He took on the issue of his role in Peking in a most positive way.
How did he handle it?
He had...
seen more of the head of state there than he did on his four previous summits and that that wasn't the issue anyhow that what is the issue is the effectiveness of our foreign policy and he and the members of the department are most proud of it good good well that's good that's good i just hope we can get him turned around he's very sensitive on this and i'm going to have to see him today about it and the main thing i have to be concerned about is you see we just can't get him into the
I mean, I think with the Russians it'll be easier because Brezhnev, I'm sure, will have, you know, more of a plenary session kind of a thing.
That's right.
Brezhnev is the man in charge there, whereas Joe is the man in charge in China.
Right, exactly.
That's right.
So that'll work out.
But the only other thing is this insistence that because we have an NSC man sitting in on his meeting at,
There should be a state man sitting in on my meetings.
That's just ridiculous.
I'm not going to have a state man sitting in on a Brown and Chief of State meeting.
No, absolutely.
I think that is just a... We're not reciprocating.
These aren't two co-equal branches of government, after all.
I've never done it with anybody else, and we'll see what's done with him.
We'll fill him in.
No, but he did do a fine job today.
Good.
Good, sir.

NARA Description

On March 7, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 2:26 pm to 2:27 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 021-015 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 21-15

Date: March 7, 1972
Time: 2:26 pm - 2:27 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Gen. Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

[See Conversation No. 322-26]

     Henry A. Kissinger’s schedule
         -John B. Connally
         -The President’s schedule
               -Forthcoming meeting with Kissinger
                    -Executive Office Building [EOB]

     Haig’s appreciation

     Press conference by William P. Rogers
           -Role in Peking

                -Compared to previous summits
          -Foreign policy
                -State Department
          -The President’s view
          -Soviet trip
                -Leonid I. Brezhnev
                      -Plenary session
                -Chou En-lai
                      -People’s Republic of China [PRC]
          -Participation in diplomatic meetings
                -National Security Council [NSC]
                      -State Department meetings
                -State Department
                      -Head of State meetings
                      -The President’s view

Also recorded on March 7, 1972

  • 021-012 2:18 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 2:18 pm.
  • 021-013 2:18 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:18 pm and 2:26 pm.
  • 021-014 2:18 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:18 pm and 2:26 pm.
  • 322-024 2:18 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 2:18 pm.
  • 322-025 2:18 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 2:18 pm and 2:26 pm.
  • 322-026 2:26 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:26 pm to 2:27 pm.
  • 021-016 2:29 PM · 28 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Abraham A. Ribicoff talked on the telephone from 2:29 pm to 2:38 pm.
  • 322-027 2:29 PM · 30 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Abraham A. Ribicoff met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:29 pm to 2:30 pm.

All 43 conversations from March 7, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 021-015, March 7, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/021-015 (accessed October 12, 2026).