Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 304 › Conversation 304-009

Nixon & Rogers on Foreign Aid and International Relations

Monday, October 25, 1971 · 3:01 PM–3:11 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 9 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Rogers, William P.Conversation304-009 on Tape 304 (tape position 00:28:23–00:37:23)StartMonday, October 25, 1971 at 3:01 PMEndMonday, October 25, 1971 at 3:11 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 304-009 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Secretary of State William P. Rogers discuss foreign policy challenges, focusing on U.S. relations with international organizations and foreign nations following recent legislative setbacks. They evaluate the shifting allegiances of countries like China and European allies, expressing frustration with Congressional opposition to foreign aid and trade surcharges. The President concludes that the administration must re-examine its reliance on multilateral organizations and pursue a more independent approach to foreign diplomacy.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 3 minutes of this recording (about 35% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Hello?
Okay.
Hello?
Why are you not playing golf today, are you?
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
It doesn't upset our plan for completing our trip.
Oh, yeah, sure.
Well, God bless you.
You did an acre of effort.
That's important.
Well, you know, really, when you come down to it, we've been up there seeing 95 minutes or so.
I got this.
I don't think in the history of the country the president's ever made one of these calls before.
You're a king, a prime minister, a president, and, you know, you really put things on.
Good.
This involves, too, you know, they're so anxious to, you know, move on the surcharge.
And also, Mexico has a special problem.
You know, they've got these parallel planes still, a lot of them, and the Congress wants to kick them in the ass on them.
Now, by golly, there's going to be a rumble now.
And it's there the Congress will, in my opinion.
Well, the Belgians are going to go the other way, aren't they?
Well, that's a good way to call it.
I know, I know.
After that you probably want to get there.
That was the first last time.
Well, I guess it wouldn't be another 10 months, you know, at this point.
What the hell is the relationship the Chinese are going to do with them?
What good is it going to do them, compared with what good we can do them?
The Chinese are going to just sell them to them, buy from them, and they just are playing around.
They're trading something very good for something very uncertain.
That's right.
That's right.
They've got the deal.
They've got the deal.
I guess that we do not take these things lightly.
But I have another idea that works that way, that would help.
We won't do anything else.
Just on this one section, for example, the one section that I mentioned, that was an Irish symbolic that was there for the report visits and so forth.
By God, we just don't know.
I don't want to see it.
We don't know.
We can at least take that away.
We get to the eight things in the rest of the country.
We went to this little house in the other country.
That's a Chinese home.
They want to choose that, and they go to China for their home.
They've chosen their way.
Not a word, and it's never even leaked or anything like that, but as you well know, you sort of come across it every day, and you just say, no, I won't recommend it.
I don't consider it a sin, or that's just a color.
I don't consider it anything anyway.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We have many chips.
If we have many chips, we do have many chips.
But they don't believe that the United States, when the chips are down, will ever be anything but a cholera.
Is that it?
I'm glad you have taken a very strong position on that.
At least it shows that if you have something in El Perú, by God, it would be the same thing.
I don't, I don't, on this boat, I haven't had a good time, I don't necessarily, got a slap on the wrist a little bit, you know.
I don't, you work up there, you get bored, and then you get out there, and you paddle, and you see them, and you put them, you know.
special treatment, they come in and they talk about it in the audience, and I don't worry.
We just listen to the people from Mexico and tell them what they expect.
That's true of Europe, too, Bill.
Yeah, if you take France,
The British, they basically have a position, and I understand that, in the European Union, there's a lot of them, and I think that they deserve to be educated, and they're really, in this period of time, they're really jealous of the United States, and they're going to take it out on us.
So, you know, we just have to do what we need to do.
So, I think we've got to re-examine our support for multilateral organizations.
Clearly, I think we have to re-examine them.
more in that money.
You know, I stopped doing that every time for IEA and all the rest.
We've got 69 now.
You know, we put a lot of prestige in trying to get them to approve it.
What the hell?
Next time we won't do it.
Do they?
Yeah.
Well, let me tell you.
Go ahead and probably send over to me the next time.
We've got to support Iowa.
We've got to support Inter-American development.
We'll find some other names to support.
You know, the thing is, with all the mention about foreign aid, so-called, God damn it, that's what the Congress ought to be approving.
We've got to approve foreign aid so that we can do it correctly.
And we'll get a few of these congressmen and senators in after this, and I think we should, and say, look, let's have some cold turkey problems, but more than our neighbors.
And there's health here.
We won't have to pass one of those.
Yeah.
He was there.
He was here.
He was here in the National Organization.
He's got that big list, you know.
And so I said, all right, all right.
That's too bad.
Is that my last answer?
Well, anyway,
Keep at it.
You never know.
I'm sure.
I started a long shot.

NARA Description

On October 25, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:01 pm to 3:11 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 304-009 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 304-9

Date: October 25, 1971
Time: 3:01 pm 3:11 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with William P. Rogers.

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

[Previous National Security (B) withdrawal reviewed under MDR guidelines case number
LPRN-T-MDR-2014-018. Segment declassified on 09/12/2018. Archivist: DR]
[National Security]
[304-009-w001]
[Duration: 43s]

[See Conversation No. 012-116-w001]

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

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

[Previous National Security (B) withdrawal reviewed under MDR guidelines case number
LPRN-T-MDR-2014-018. Segment declassified on 09/12/2018. Archivist: DR]
[National Security]
[304-009-w002]
[Duration: 30s]

[See Conversation No. 012-116-w002]

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

Also recorded on October 25, 1971

  • 012-116 3:01 PM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, and William P. Rogers talked on the telephone from 3:01 pm to 3:11 pm.
  • 012-117 3:12 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 3:12 pm to 3:15 pm.
  • 304-010 3:12 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:12 pm to 3:15 pm.
  • 012-118 3:15 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:15 pm and 3:29 pm.
  • 304-011 3:15 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:15 pm and 3:29 pm.
  • 304-012 3:15 PM · 28 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:15 pm and 3:29 pm.
  • 304-013 3:15 PM · 15 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 3:15 pm and 3:29 pm.
  • 304-014 3:15 PM · 7 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 3:15 pm and 3:29 pm.

All 50 conversations from October 25, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 304-009, October 25, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/304-009 (accessed October 9, 2026).