Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 076-007
Date: Tuesday, September 21, 1971 at 12:17 PM
Participants: Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum; International Seminar on Illicit Drug Traffic and Abuse; Tartaglino, Andrew C.; Belk, George; Buck, Walter H.; Warner, John W.; Rivkind, Perry A.; Rock, Edwin (Dr.); Hoffman, Ernst (Dr.); Thirty, Andre; Franç ois; Tomalty, Gordon; Pruneau, Reginald; Charles, S. T.; Rogers, W.; Spear, H. B.; Hasland, Alex; Ducet, Jean; Gevaudan, Honore; Reillac, Jacques; Noquet, Michel; Gemmer, Karl Heinz (Dr.); Jeschke, Jurgen; Vinale, Manlio; Fariello, Antonio; Kourayten, Hicham; Saade, Antoine; Wagner, Numa; Grindhaug, Sten; Krogh, Egil ("Bud"), Jr.; Minnick, Walter; Shepard, Geoffrey C.
Recording device: Cabinet Room
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/076-007
National Archives Catalog: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/417174257 (NAID 417174257)

This transcript was made by an AI model listening to the recording (google/gemini-3.8-flash) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Speaker names are the model's inference. Verify against the audio before citing.

[5:38:00] NIXON: as far as supply and the international, uh, problem. It's that one of trafficking, an international standpoint, but also from the standpoint of, uh, of a seeing a treating of the of the ills, the far-off the bond portion of something.
[5:38:18] NIXON: Uh it's it's an area where international organizations have expressed an interest, the United Nations, and this group, which is particularly, uh, tuned in to careers. Uh and it's an area, also, where we, uh, uh,
[5:38:36] NIXON: and where we have been very gratified with the cooperation we have had from so many other governments. Uh the a rather landmark decision was made by the Turkish government, uh where when required, their Prime Minister and their government taken action in a way that is, perhaps,
[5:38:52] NIXON: somewhat hazardous to us, but most dramatic. Uh, and in and in and in the case of each country here, uh, each of the areas has an interest which, uh, uh, is is perhaps different in some ways, but common in other ways. And common in the sense of our total objective
[5:39:11] NIXON: of, uh, of dealing with this problem effectively on the international front. And, uh, my, uh, my wish to, uh, show you that, uh,
[5:39:24] NIXON: the the extent, uh, and how direct it all is from our government to to support the efforts, uh, in the the activities which, uh, which you determine are useful to deal with this problem. Uh the Secretary of State, of course, is the chairman of the cabinet committee,
[5:39:44] NIXON: committee, and that indicates the priority we give to this. The cabinet committee dealing with the problem on the international front. And, uh, we, of course, have a special White House, uh, adviser in this area, uh, and we, uh, uh, to say that, on the domestic front,
[5:40:03] NIXON: uh except for the for the obvious problems of the economy, which are always with us, but first, uh this is probably our number one concern. Uh it's our number one concern because, uh like, it's being a a growing problem, and it's a problem
[5:40:22] NIXON: we used to be able to sort of put aside and say, "Well, that's a problem of the of the ghettos, it's a problem of, uh, the poor," et cetera. Now it's the problem of the whole society. Uh, and to a certain sense, uh as we look at the history of civilizations, too,
[5:40:42] NIXON: uh we we history uh certainly a pretty good evidence of the fact that once a nation starts down this road, it goes beyond the point of no return uh because basically uh the a drug society, a uh a decadent society, not the one that can retain its vitality and strength,
[5:41:02] NIXON: uh it's uh it's um ability to uh uh to live up to its uh capabilities. So, uh, for all this time, I
[5:41:17] NIXON: I see your program, which will allow for the discussions you'd like to have with the experts, the people who have the experience in this area, uh, and I want you to know that that's the reason why the White House uh is pleased to take her
[5:41:36] NIXON: special guests, because you're here on business. We're very much We want you to feel very much at home, and we're here appreciative that you came. When you go back to your countries and your departments, I hope that to each government, if you might be able to, you could express my personal sense so that they know that this is not simply something that we put out in the garage,
[5:41:56] NIXON: that it's not something that we uh expect to handle at lower levels, but something for which I have personal interest and personal character to it. That's why I'm holding the people in our office personally accountable uh to to produce.
[5:42:13] NIXON: And with your help, um we believe that we can make some dramatic progress.
[5:42:23] NIXON: And to that end, you can't come a long way. I think you'd like to have a little remembrance. So, I've, uh, asked Mr. Bull to go around and provide for each of you a, uh, um a pair of handy presidential cufflinks, which has the presidential seal on it.
[5:42:34] NIXON: Uh you can take back to prove that you've been here. [laughter]
[5:43:07] UNKNOWN: [unintelligible] this code that I got the activity in.