Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 303 › Conversation 303-002

Nixon & Rogers on United Nations and Public Diplomacy

Tuesday, October 26, 1971 · 1:41 PM–1:47 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 6 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Rogers, William P.Conversation303-002 on Tape 303 (tape position 00:00:56–00:06:59)StartTuesday, October 26, 1971 at 1:41 PMEndTuesday, October 26, 1971 at 1:47 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 303-002 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Secretary of State William P. Rogers discuss the public and political fallout from a recent United Nations vote, specifically focusing on the negative emotional impact of televised footage depicting delegates celebrating the outcome. The conversation centers on how to manage public perception and formulate an official administration response that expresses dissatisfaction without unnecessarily escalating tensions or embarrassing the country. Nixon instructs Rogers to frame the narrative by emphasizing that the U.S. is strategically boxed in regarding its UN involvement, directing the criticism toward the institution rather than the presidency.

Audio

Download MP3 · 13.9 MB

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 12% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Yeah.
Hello.
Hello.
Oh, Bill, how did you get along?
I've been tied up on the business debt report.
I haven't been able to talk to him yet at the job.
What we've got is basically this, and I told our people here to vent their sling on the UN, on us, because it's a... Reagan probably read it, and I don't know if he was funny, but he, of course, is an allegation, but I found what I was reading, and I think this is, I find this to be true of a lot of people,
They saw it on television.
They said, these cannibals coming up and down and all that.
And apparently, it was a pretty good-testing picture.
And they cheered.
I didn't see it.
Did you, on TV?
I was sitting and just read the report.
But Raymond said, he's practically got sick in his stomach.
And that's why he called.
And so it was a terrible scene.
That sort of thing will have an emotional effect on people.
And here at least, as he said, there's a bunch of people in Blair's shoes to be taken to the United States in a team.
It's a terrible thing.
Did you get the same thing with that on the report?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
One of the parts of this building has been getting closer to the air every year.
What was it last year?
And, uh, well, I can't help but believe that, uh, that we have a, there are a multitude of reasons we've worked on it, and what do you think?
Well, here's what his proposal is.
This proposal, basically, he said, you know, this deal is so strong, he said, I don't know, I heard you, and I was so confused, and I had this background, and I thought, well, we're safe.
He said, I agree, and he said, you ought to call the first back, and the instructions to go back to the United Nations and just say, well, the United Nations is no longer participating in the votes.
Well, do you know what I mean?
And he said, listen, there's American people who've been... Well, of course, that, in effect, feels like getting out of his mind.
As you know, he's pretty far off the verge of your dick.
What do you think?
Is it any good to call him that?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I'll tell you what you might do.
You don't know how impressive it's over there, but you might read that portion of your statement.
I wouldn't read the part that was welcome in Chinese.
Just say we support it or that.
But what I meant is, but I wouldn't even say that.
I just might say, look, this book is not, we've read this, we think it was this, and then say, look, we don't like it.
We don't like it.
We don't like it.
We don't like it.
We don't like it.
We don't like it.
and said, tell you to keep it in confidence, because we don't want to embarrass the country, should I call, that I didn't call.
But why don't you tell me about this?
It's unprecedented.
Proudly.
Proudly of the laws, for Christ's sakes.
And the oral messages, oh yeah, I think the oral said at least that everything was done, and I'm pressing it after that, and it said what really happened here.
I think it might explain this.
Before we ever announced the Chinese trip, which was very important, before we ever announced it, Italy was gone, Canada was gone, you know, and Iran.
Good, good.
All right.
Do your best.
Oh, but explain if you feel that I, that I, Tom, Tom, that I, that I, he's talking to me, that I, as a matter of fact, I did talk to you about that, that I, that I talked to you and you said, in other words, reflected this in your statement, what you made the statement, what you, what you said, what you said, what you said, what you said, what you said.
the connections to you and that you deal with them and all the other things that you have mentioned, which isn't a bad thing to say that there's one expression of ours that right now we have a puzzle that we can work and we may have to use the UN, you know, to restrain that damn war and that this therefore we're really in a box with you.
I get that very hard.
We're going to tell him not to tell me what he said, because that's something else he's going to have to remember.
Hit the U.S. and don't hit the President.
Okay?
Bye.

NARA Description

On October 26, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:41 pm to 1:47 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 303-002 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 303-002

Date: October 26, 1971

       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542

Time: 1:41 pm - 1:47 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with William P. Rogers.

[See Conversation No. 13-12]

The President hung up due to poor telephone connection.

The President resumed conversation with William P. Rogers.

Also recorded on October 26, 1971

  • 602-011 1:39 PM · 58 sec — unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:39 pm and 11:59 pm.
  • 303-001 1:40 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:40 pm and 1:41 pm.
  • 013-012 1:41 PM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers talked on the telephone from 1:41 pm to 1:47 pm.
  • 013-013 1:47 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:47 pm and 1:50 pm.
  • 303-003 1:47 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:47 pm and 1:50 pm.
  • 303-004 1:47 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:47 pm and 1:50 pm.
  • 303-005 1:47 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:47 pm and 1:50 pm.
  • 013-014 1:50 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers talked on the telephone from 1:50 pm to 1:51 pm.

All 44 conversations from October 26, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 303-002, October 26, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/303-002 (accessed October 12, 2026).