Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 277 › Conversation 277-006

Nixon & Haig on Foreign Aid and Democratic Standards

Wednesday, September 15, 1971 · 12:18 PM–12:20 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Conversation277-006 on Tape 277 (tape position 00:11:44–00:13:19)StartWednesday, September 15, 1971 at 12:18 PMEndWednesday, September 15, 1971 at 12:20 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 277-006 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Alexander Haig discuss the need for a briefing regarding the democratic legitimacy and election histories of various foreign nations receiving U.S. aid. Nixon expresses frustration with the pace of the administrative staff, directing Haig to ensure the State Department produces a concise fifteen-minute report. The President intends to use this data to evaluate the political background of current foreign leaders in relation to American democratic standards.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 112.2 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 48.4 MB

This conversation has not yet been cut into its own clip, so the player above contains the full tape segment shared with neighbouring conversations. It begins about 00:11:44 into the tape and ends around 00:13:19.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.
11:58Second, in his last election, did he have a contested election?
12:25which meets U.S. standards.
12:26All right, I'm going to go over that, and I'll tell them I wanted 15 minutes of state.
12:31Tell those assholes to get going, and I expect it to be 15 minutes.
12:33They know who the president is, and I know some of these countries.
12:37They didn't have an election last time.
12:40The last time, they may have had another democratic president, something altogether different.
12:46I want to know how many of the present leaders of the countries that they've got,
12:51I want that too.
12:52That's something else.
12:53The one on aid.
12:54That's a better question.
12:55It'll come later.
12:56But I want on this particular list that they already have, the ones that have become independent.
13:00Some of them have given aid or something else.
13:03But I want them to say, now look here, how many of these types of present leaders in his last election had a contested election, meaning American standards.
13:16All right.
13:16I'm telling you, they're off their butts.

NARA Description

On September 15, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 12:18 pm to 12:20 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 277-006 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 277-6

Date: September 15, 1971
Time: 12:18 pm - 12:20 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

[See Conversation No. 9-17]

Also recorded on September 15, 1971

  • 009-015 11:59 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 11:59 am to 12:01 pm.
  • 009-016 12:01 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:01 pm and 12:18 pm.
  • 277-033 12:01 PM · 11 sec — Taft Schreiber met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:01 pm and 12:18 pm.
  • 009-017 12:18 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 12:18 pm to 12:20 pm.
  • 009-018 12:20 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:20 pm and 12:24 pm.
  • 009-019 12:24 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 12:24 pm to 12:25 pm.
  • 277-007 12:24 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 12:24 pm to 12:25 pm.
  • 009-020 12:25 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:25 pm and 12:37 pm.

All 57 conversations from September 15, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 277-006, September 15, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/277-006 (accessed October 9, 2026).