Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 25 › Conversation 025-071

Nixon phone call with Helms on Luis Echeverría Álvarez and Foreign Policy

Friday, June 16, 1972 · 12:20 PM–12:33 PM ET · White House Telephone · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Helms, Richard M.Conversation025-071 on Tape 25 (tape position 03:08:29–03:10:19)StartFriday, June 16, 1972 at 12:20 PMEndFriday, June 16, 1972 at 12:33 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 025-071 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417193765 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon briefed CIA Director Richard M. Helms on his recent meeting with Mexican President Luis Echeverría Álvarez ahead of the two men's scheduled appointment. Nixon instructed Helms to leverage the President's personal endorsement during their upcoming discussion and shared his recent intelligence assessment regarding Soviet and Chinese subversion. Furthermore, Nixon emphasized to Helms his commitment to concluding the Vietnam War correctly and maintaining a strong anti-aggression posture throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Audio

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NARA Description

On June 16, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Richard M. Helms talked on the telephone from 12:20 pm to 12:33 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 025-071 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 25-71

Date: June 16, 1972
Time: 12:30-12:33 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Richard M. Helms.

     Luis Echeverria Alvarez
     -The President’s previous meeting with Luis Echeverria Alvarez
                -Appointment with Richard M. Helms
          -Foreign policy
                -Soviet Union
                -People's Republic of China [PRC]
          -Lt. Gen. Vernon A. Walters

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[National Security (B) withdrawal reviewed under MDR guidelines case number LPRN-T-MDR-
2014-012. Segment exempt per Executive Order 13526, 3.3(b)(1) on 10/17/2017. Archivist: JD]
[National Security]
[025-071-w001]
[Duration: 16s]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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     Luis Echeverria Alvarez
           -Vietnam
           -Aggression
                -Western Hemisphere

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

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Hello.
Director Helms, Mr. President.
Hello.
Good morning, Mr. President.
Dick, I just left President Echeverria.
He took me aside.
You know, he doesn't speak in English, but he says, I'm seeing Director Helms this afternoon.
I said, good.
I said, he's, you can, you know, he has authorized it.
directly to you from me.
So you should tell him that I talked to you and so forth.
I don't know what games we're playing there, but he's strong.
He wants to play the right games.
I had told him, I gave him a little fill in Russia and China.
I said, no, but I said, no, we've had all these initiatives, but let me make one thing clear.
I have no reason to believe that both nations are going to continue their support of subversion in other countries.
I said, that's just, I said, we have agreed on
no overt confrontations in effect but i said this is what you've got to expect and i think uh so uh that's the way i sort of i we didn't go in any other domestic things he has but uh so uh well thank you very much sir i will uh we are dick walters is going with me and we're going to have about an hour's chat with him
because I went into why we had to finish Vietnam in the right way, why it was important for us to hold the ring against aggression all over the world, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, because nobody else was there to do it.
And he's on our side, all right.
Oh, that's great, Mr. President.
Thank you very much.
All right, bye.

Also recorded on June 16, 1972

  • 737-002 10:18 AM · 1 hr 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander P. Butterfield, John D. Ehrlichman, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, James D. Hodgson, Elliot L. Richardson, Caspar W. ("Cap") Weinberger, Clark MacGregor, Kenneth R. Cole, Jr., Thomas C. Korologos, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:18 am and 11:18 am.
  • 737-003 11:18 AM · 50 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:18 am and 11:22 am.
  • 737-004 11:22 AM · 1 hr 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Luis Echeverria Alvarez, Emilio Rabasa Mishkin, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and Donald F. Barnes met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:22 am to 12:26 pm.
  • 737-005 12:33 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, Vernon C. Coffey, Jr., and Gen. Brent G. Scowcroft met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:33 pm to 2:38 pm.
  • 737-006 12:38 PM · 57 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:38 pm and 12:44 pm.
  • 737-007 12:44 PM · 11 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, John A. Vann, John A. Vann, Thomas Vann, Peter Vann, Frank Vann, Eugene Vann, Dorothy Vann Cadorette, Dorothy Vann Cadorette, Mary Jane Vann, William P. Rogers, Melvin R. Laird, Ronald L. Ziegler, Gen. Brent G. Scowcroft, Vernon C. Coffey, Jr., John K. Andrews, Jr., and Joseph W. Alsop met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:44 pm to 12:53 pm.
  • 737-008 12:53 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:53 pm and 12:56 pm.
  • 737-009 12:56 PM · 35 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, John D. Ehrlichman, Alexander P. Butterfield, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:56 pm to 1:35 pm.

All 11 conversations from June 16, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 025-071, June 16, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417193765). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/025-071 (accessed November 14, 2026).