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Conversation 169-032

TapeTape 169StartWednesday, June 20, 1973 at 10:59 PMEndWednesday, June 20, 1973 at 11:03 PMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Recording deviceCamp David Study Table
AI Summary

President Nixon and Alexander Haig discussed the historic significance of the dinner meeting with Leonid Brezhnev, expressing their shared conviction that the personal rapport established during the event represented an unprecedented breakthrough in U.S.-Soviet diplomacy. Emphasizing the importance of documenting these interactions, Nixon directed Haig to ensure that Helmut Sonnenfeldt and Ronald Ziegler draft comprehensive memoranda of their recollections of the evening. The discussion also touched upon the distracting impact of the Watergate scandal, which the President feared threatened to overshadow this major foreign policy achievement.

Leonid BrezhnevU.S.-Soviet relationsWatergateDiplomatic record keepingHelmut SonnenfeldtRonald Ziegler
AudioNARA Description

On June 20, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone at Camp David from 10:59 pm to 11:03 pm. The Camp David Study Table taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 169-032 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 169-32

Date: June 20, 1973
Time: 10:59 pm - 11:03 pm
Location: Camp David Study Table

The President talked with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

     Leonid I. Brezhnev’s visit
          -Dinner, June 20, 1973
                 -Haig’s forthcoming conversations
                       -Helmut (“Hal”) Sonnenfeldt, Ronald L. Ziegler
                             Recollections, Memoranda of conversations [memcons]
                 -Significance
                 -Lyndon B. Johnson
                       -Toasts
                 -Reaction of American people
                 -Franklin D. Roosevelt and Josef V. Stalin
          -President’s meeting with Brezhnev
                 -President’s assessment of Brezhnev
          -Haig’s conversation with Ziegler
          -Dinner
                 -Importance of record
                       -Sonnenfeldt, Ziegler
                 -Kitchen staff
                       -Haig’s conversation with Manolo Sanchez
                 -Food and wine

     Watergate
          -Significance
                                            -23-

                  NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                     (rev. August-2011)

                                                          Conversation No. 169-32 (cont’d)

           -Effect on negotiations with Soviet Union
Transcript (AI-Generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

Hello?
Hello, Al.
Yes, sir.
I thought you might tell Sonnenfeld and possibly Ziegler to put down their complete recollections of the dinner tonight, because it was quite significant, you know.
I thought it was a remarkable thing, and, you know, they should, you know, could you tell them I want each of them to write a full Mimcon?
Right, I've already told that to Sonnenfeld.
Sonnenfeld had a good memory, and so there's probably remembering things, too.
Right, absolutely.
That's really quite a deal.
God, I never believe I've never been through so many posts I didn't think I'd get through.
But, you know, the guy is just absolutely enamored with this thing, and he's personal.
Oh, the personal thing.
Boy, I'm telling you, he's...
I really think he should have had Johnson there, because Johnson's more of a plower than I am.
I'm not good at plowing.
Well, I'll tell you, you didn't really accomplish something here.
It's just a goddamn shame the American people couldn't see that.
They wouldn't believe it.
You know, I don't think they would, would they?
No.
And yet, you know, you can't be...
too strong on it because it's all built on the other thing.
Yes.
And so you have to preserve it, but it was just up into a hole.
And he was.
Yeah.
I'm sure there's never been an exchange like that between the Russians and ourselves.
Oh, never.
Not even in the Roosevelt days.
No, sir.
Without Stalin, you know, they got along, but they didn't have that kind of exchange.
Stalin wasn't that kind of a man.
He was a cold bastard.
This guy is something.
He has to mean it.
That could not be anything.
He needs it.
No question.
In our earlier talk, when we were talking privately, he just goes all out.
It's just unbelievable.
Ron and I were just talking about that.
It just was something to witness.
And we do have to get a complete record of this detail.
I told that to some fellas, and I don't give a goddamn...
How cynical you might feel.
No, I'm cynical.
No, well, we all are, but we have to the record and run to make this work.
Well, I'll get rid of it.
What did you think?
Yes, well, it really was.
Yeah.
I think your staff in there just did a superb job.
Oh, the dinner?
The way they served.
Yeah, I went back in the kitchen.
They served a beautiful dinner, and they worked their tails off, too.
They really did.
I told them a little, and it added to it.
It was as a good meal does.
Yeah.
It was well-served, the Russian wine and all that.
Yeah.
And the food was delicious.
Absolutely perfect.
Could have been better.
You know, better any place in the world.
You don't need.
Right, you know, when you think of this, I mean, this crap of a lot of data just pales on its significance, doesn't it?
It really does.
It really does.
And that's why I was sitting there, and I damn near cried when I thought about this achievement.
That freaks me out, what it's meant to our people and the world.
And the point is that what it can mean in the future, and here these jackasses want to poison it all, huh?
No, sir, I do not.
I'm very, very, very convinced of it.
Am I going to do it?
Well, we hope not.
Okay.
Fine, Mr. President.
Good.
Bye.
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