Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 039-087
Date: Monday, June 4, 1973 at 11:16 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/039-087

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.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] Hello, Mr. President.
[0:03] Hi, Henry.
[0:03] Are you out to dinner?
[0:05] Yes, I'm at the British Embassy.
[0:07] Oh, boy.
[0:09] I want to tell you that tomorrow I thought you should do a rather brief thing on Pompidou and, of course, just raise the curtain a little on the Paris thing.
[0:20] Not much, you know?
[0:21] Right.
[0:22] And then— Because that is set up so that I can brief on Thursday morning with a bipartisan group, right?
[0:30] Right.
[0:30] Don't you agree?
[0:31] Absolutely.
[0:32] Right.
[0:33] The other thing is, with regard to now, you know, that is quite significant, actually.
[0:38] Oh, I think that's of enormous significance, Mr. President.
[0:41] The other thing I was going to say, though, that... Because it means they think they're going to deal with you for the foreseeable future.
[0:48] The other thing is, do you think that...
[0:51] that we should get in.
[0:54] Well, we can't do it before you leave, but if you could get a message to the ambassador here that we think it's very important for Xi Jinping to come to the U.N. Or do you want to wait until August to do that?
[1:08] I've done that, Mr. President.
[1:09] You have?
[1:09] I did that.
[1:10] I see Liberty doing that in response.
[1:13] Yeah, you see, it's going to look rather strange if I go running to China.
[1:17] No, I've already done that.
[1:22] I said I had already extended an invitation at your suggestion a few months ago.
[1:26] I repeated it and I said we can do it in one of two ways.
[1:31] Either to go to the U.N.,
[1:33] Well, better yet, just come to Washington on a cruise.
[1:36] Now, what he should do is to come to the U.N. and then drop down here, and we'll give him a nice dinner, you know, without the head of state thing.
[1:43] But it'll be, you know, everything except the drill.
[1:46] Right.
[1:47] Well, I told him he could handle it either way.
[1:51] And he's going to forward that to them, huh?
[1:56] And he said, well, he didn't turn it down.
[1:59] Uh-huh.
[2:00] You know, in the past they said they could never do it as long as the PRSB— Yeah, I know.
[2:05] Yeah.
[2:06] He said, well, he's very busy, and look at his calendar.
[2:08] Well, I'm pure of the Mao thing, you see.
[2:13] The Mao thing has to be significant, because if it came from show and lie, that'd be one thing, but coming from Mao— From both.
[2:19] It was a joint invitation.
[2:21] Right.
[2:22] And I don't know whether you noticed, Mr. President, when he came that he said to you, Mr. and Mrs. Mao.
[2:30] Yeah, yeah, I know.
[2:31] Well, that was very significant considering her role in the Cultural Revolution.
[2:35] Yeah, and as a member of the Central Committee.
[2:38] Yes, and of the Politburo.
[2:40] Politburo, I meant, yeah.
[2:43] So I thought it was an extremely significant event.
[2:47] And also that they answered you within three days.
[2:50] I mean, you only saw him last Wednesday.
[2:53] Right.
[2:53] Right.
[2:55] And they also gave us a rather good message on Cambodia.
[2:58] Oh, did they?
[2:59] Yes, but we mustn't refer to that in any sense.
[3:02] Oh, no, no, no, no, because they got me caught at it, I know.
[3:05] And also, we must be very careful what we say to the bipartisan leaders.
[3:08] I'll send you some... Oh, I'm not going to say a word to the bipartisan leaders, and I'm going to let you talk about that.
[3:16] No, I mean on Thursday.
[3:18] On Thursday?
[3:18] Oh, yes, I'll be very careful.
[3:21] Give me just some talking points, and I'll just fudge that, believe me.
[3:25] Actually, the way it's working out, Mr. President, is that in terms of timing, you're seeing them at 8, at 8.30?
[3:33] Right.
[3:34] Well, that will work out fine.
[3:35] That will be just the time that the meeting in Paris breaks up, where we will probably be able to announce that we've concluded an agreement.
[3:42] Right.
[3:43] Then the actual text will be released later in the afternoon.
[3:46] So I can tell the leaders a little of the dance.
[3:49] Just give them a slight feel for it.
[3:51] Right.
[3:51] But you don't have to give the full details, which is better.
[3:54] Right, that's right.
[3:54] You can give them enough of a sense of it.
[3:57] I'll say there's going to be an announcement in Paris.
[3:59] I just want to give you a feel of it.
[4:00] Yes, exactly.
[4:02] Right.
[4:02] But at any rate, it gives you the advance announcement.
[4:07] Good.
[4:09] Okay, how's Cromer?
[4:11] Fine, and he made a very good toast for you.
[4:14] Yeah.
[4:15] He counted on you.
[4:16] I was against him on it, and he used that as a peroration on you as a mentality.
[4:22] And Senator Talmadge is here, and Long didn't need it.
[4:29] It's all right.
[4:29] It's good for Talmadge to hear it.
[4:30] He's a good man.
[4:32] And it really was very helpful.
[4:37] Over the weekend, I worked on Danny Kaye and on the Israeli ambassador, and Haig tells me that they really came through for us at a— Yeah, at a dinner, yes?
[4:47] Yeah.
[4:49] Yep.
[4:50] Okay, well— I think actually the mood is turning.
[4:54] It could be.
[4:57] I think it may be, actually.
[4:59] You know, all this crap over the weekend, they overdid it.
[5:04] That's what I think, Mr. President.
[5:06] Right.
[5:07] People are getting very, a little bit disturbed about, you know, these sort of...
[5:12] The president, the Chinese, didn't have to come back to you in three days.
[5:15] No.
[5:16] That was a tremendous... Well, Pompidou didn't have to agree with us either.
[5:20] And Pompidou didn't have to agree with us.
[5:22] Right.
[5:26] So I think after the president visits, we'll be doing positive things.
[5:31] Right.
[5:31] Well, we'll be doing it during the visit.
[5:34] But I meant during.
[5:35] Right.
[5:35] As soon as he gets here.
[5:37] Right.
[5:38] And then from the moment you get back from Paris, let's start building that damn visit up.
[5:42] Absolutely.
[5:43] Okay.
[5:44] You'll be back Friday?
[5:45] I'll be back Friday night or Saturday.
[5:47] All right.
[5:48] Finally.
[5:48] Bye.