Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 90 › Conversation 090-002

Nixon & Kissinger on Foreign Policy and Diplomacy

Wednesday, February 9, 1972 · 7:58 AM–11:31 AM ET · Cabinet Room

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Kissinger, Henry A.;  [Unknown person(s)]Conversation090-002 onTape 90StartWednesday, February 9, 1972 at 7:58 AMEndWednesday, February 9, 1972 at 11:31 AMRecording deviceCabinet RoomSourceNixon Library record for 090-002 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Henry Kissinger and his staff to express gratitude for their extensive efforts on major foreign policy initiatives, specifically regarding the Soviet Union and China. During the discussion, Nixon reflected on historical figures like Woodrow Wilson to emphasize the necessity of balancing idealism with pragmatic, disciplined diplomacy. He concluded by asserting that the rigorous 'homework' performed by the staff provided the best opportunity for achieving global peace in 1972.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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37:26Teksting av Nicolai Winther
52:14Teksting av Nicolai Winther
1:11:47This is a guy with a camera.
1:11:48He's in the back room taking pictures for Christmas.
1:11:49I'm not sure if you're all in range, but I think this right side is probably a little farther out, so she can say nothing.
1:11:53You guys can go back in a little bit.
1:11:54If you want to be in the picture, you can do this.
1:11:55If you can see this.
1:11:56If you can see this.
1:13:41Well, let's see.
1:13:41Take it on the side here.
1:13:42Okay, this will blow your cover.
1:13:43Okay.
1:14:26All right.
1:14:29Done.
1:14:29All right, now you get the first pen.
1:14:33Everybody else has a pen, but I do want to take this time to thank you for your work.
1:14:40And, you know, we care a lot about who does the work around here.
1:14:47You guys tell me who does it, but I don't know.
1:14:51I'll keep you up at all times.
1:14:54I want you to socialize.
1:14:55But I do know that, to show you that I do follow on these things, I told you to come forward.
1:15:10And we told you that some of the staff worked all night.
1:15:11And I remember on the night, the Sunday when I called, you said, I got you about two o'clock in the afternoon.
1:15:13I said, how's it coming?
1:15:14You said, we're going to get done by three.
1:15:14And I said, the staff has been working all night long.
1:15:15And I'm most grateful.
1:15:16I wish we could pay you what you're doing.
1:15:17But, uh...
1:15:57It is the fact that perhaps never in history have people working in the field of foreign policy in this country lived to a mark of magnitude.
1:16:00Who would have thought at the beginning of this year, besides the reportings we've got, that this year we'd be writing about a potential Soviet government, and this is China.
1:16:27If we decided that there was a credibility gap, of course we know it's going to happen all the time, but while we have had some disappointments, we'd like to make more progress in some areas.
1:16:31You may look back at the year 1971, that's the year of the breakthrough,
1:16:55This is the end.
1:16:56We would also look back at 1972.
1:16:56Perhaps we concentrated some of these initiatives.
1:16:57I want to put this all in perspective.
1:16:58You know Will Hyatt, D.R.
1:16:59Eisenhardt, Woodrow Wilson, I didn't like to call him, I said Wagoner Wilson, Democrat.
1:17:52It's a great tragedy because he was, of course, in terms of intellectual capability, without question, an ableist man.
1:18:04In terms of idealism, we would call it morality, that sort of thing.
1:18:05That's what he just remembered.
1:18:06In terms of accomplishing, it's as far as speech is concerned, that his life was a failure.
1:18:08He knew it.
1:18:08It broke him, it broke him physically, it broke him emotionally and everything else.
1:18:09As I look back on that, I think we get some lessons.
1:18:10And the lessons are that
1:18:34We need the idealism of the Wilsons, but we also need that pragmatic approach to these problems.
1:18:36It's so easy, I found, when I talked about the China-Turkish relationship.
1:18:38It's wonderful.
1:18:38Finally, that wonderful relationship the Americans used to have with China.
1:18:40Our missionaries might be doing so much more than just going to be restored.
1:18:41Of course, that's wrong on two counts.
1:18:42It was a wonderful relationship the Americans used to have with China.
1:19:35A great story.
1:19:35It felt that if only the nations of the world could be better educated, if only they could all get together in a world organization, and all differences could be solved.
1:19:39We thought that too.
1:19:39The U.N. was set up in a consistent way.
1:19:40That's the last war.
1:19:41Here's the U.N.
1:19:41It didn't work out.
1:19:41That's no reason to say the U.N. is a nation.
1:20:03It's just a reason to say, let's look at why we set it up.
1:20:05And what we should have expected, what we should have expected is exactly what we got.
1:20:06The UN was very valuable in many of the fields, in all of them, educational, in all of them, very valuable in settling conflicts that did not major, not major major problems.
1:20:10But,
1:20:28No practical person could possibly have hoped that any major power would submit its favor to the vote of a hundred and forty nations.
1:20:31Now, this doesn't mean that it's a simple world.
1:20:32It doesn't mean that idealism doesn't have its place.
1:20:34It doesn't mean that it's a world in which we have no hope.
1:20:53I think this has been the essence of our policy.
1:20:54We set our ideals high.
1:20:55We want to be a peaceful world.
1:20:55We want to be an open world.
1:20:56Everybody has the opportunity to go to China, which we couldn't take.
1:21:11As far as we're concerned, we don't talk.
1:21:12It's too optimistic for
1:21:41Perhaps our rhetoric is not strong enough in terms of saying we're going to do this, this, this, not the other way.
1:21:43But let me say, if there's any question about what our ideals are, the point is, we know history.
1:21:45We know nations.
1:21:57We know leaders.
1:21:58We know differences.
1:21:58We know the failures of the past.
1:21:59We're not going to make those mistakes in the future.
1:22:00And as we approach the problems that way, we think that we can perhaps make progress.
1:22:02Not to the perfect world, because man is not perfect.
1:22:03And never will be.
1:22:03But to a world that is safe and cool.
1:22:24It's really all in there, because I see this report and know the hours that went into it, the hours that went into my reading, which are so-called European and other summits.
1:22:28I know it all skews, and it's thoroughly documented.
1:22:29The idea that what counts the most is...
1:22:48Not to Sarajevo.
1:22:49Everybody does that.
1:22:49What counts the most is doing your homework.
1:22:51That hard, grubby work with all the discipline, with all the whiplashing, with all the tantrums.
1:22:53And, uh...
1:23:16I only did it all ten minutes ago.
1:23:16But it's that kind of work that does not assure that we will succeed, but gives us the year 1972, a better chance to make progress toward a more peaceful world than we've ever had in the history of the century.
1:23:21So, that's all there is to say, and that's what we've done.
1:23:23Thank you.

NARA Description

On February 9, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and unknown person(s) [members of Kissinger's staff] met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 7:58 am and 11:31 am. The Cabinet Room taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 090-002 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 90-2

Date: February 9, 1972
Time: Unknown after 7:58 am until 11:31 am
Location: Cabinet Room

Henry A. Kissinger’s staff met; the White House photographer was present at the beginning of
the meeting

     [General conversation/Unintelligible]

     Photograph
          -Pose

     [General conversation/Unintelligible]

The President and Kissinger entered at 11:22 am

     President’s gratitude
          -Work

     President’s schedule

         -Socializing

    Foreign policy accomplishments

    Credibility gaps

    President’s remembrance
         -1971
               -Importance
         -1972
         -Theodore (“Teddy”) Roosevelt
         -Dwight D. Eisenhower
         -[Thomas] Woodrow Wilson
               -Democrat
               -Relation to Nixon

******************************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 17s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

******************************************************************************

                       -Wilson’s life
                            -Intellect
                            -Idealism
                            -Accomplishment
                                  -Peace
                            -Lessons
                                  -Present US needs
                                       -Idealism
                                       -Pragmatism
                                  -US - People’s Republic of China [PRC] relations
                                       -Missionaries
                                       -Chinese history
                                  -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]

                                  -H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells
                                        -Historian
                                        -Better educated nations
                                        -United Nations
                                              -Value
                                                   -Education
                                                   -Conflict settlement
                                                   -Idealism
                                                   -Hopes
                                                   -PRC
                       -Reasons for being
                            -Optimism
                            -Ideals
                            -Nations
                            -Leaders
                            -Differences
                            -Failures
                                  -Past
                                  -Future

     Future
          -Success
               -Homework
          -Work for peace
               -1972

     [General conversation/Unintelligible]

The President, et al. left at 11:31 am

Also recorded on February 9, 1972

  • 020-075 7:58 AM · 30 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 7:58 am and 8:31 am.
  • 668-002 7:58 AM · 25 min — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 7:58 am and 8:28 am.
  • 668-003 7:58 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 7:58 am and 8:28 am.
  • 668-004 8:28 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House from 8:28 am to 8:31 am.
  • 020-076 8:31 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, and John N. Erleborn talked on the telephone from 8:31 am to 8:32 am.
  • 668-005 8:31 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John N. Erleborn met in the Oval Office of the White House from 8:31 am to 8:32 am.
  • 020-077 8:34 AM · 43 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John T. Myers talked on the telephone from 8:34 am to 8:35 am.
  • 668-006 8:34 AM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John T. Myers met in the Oval Office of the White House from 8:34 am to 8:35 am.

All 53 conversations from February 9, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 090-002, February 9, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/090-002 (accessed September 18, 2026).