Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 309 › Conversation 309-012

Nixon & Rockefeller on Indo-Pakistani War and Henry Kissinger

Friday, December 24, 1971 · 2:06 PM–2:12 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Rockefeller, Nelson A.Conversation309-012 on Tape 309 (tape position 01:48:54–01:53:22)StartFriday, December 24, 1971 at 2:06 PMEndFriday, December 24, 1971 at 2:12 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 309-012 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Nelson Rockefeller exchanged Christmas greetings while discussing pressing political and foreign policy concerns. Nixon sought Rockefeller's support in bolstering the morale of Henry Kissinger, who was reportedly depressed over criticism regarding the administration's handling of the Indo-Pakistani War. The two also touched on political strategy for the upcoming election, specifically regarding John Ashbrook, and reaffirmed their commitment to passing revenue sharing legislation in the new year.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 15% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Having a thing on my mind except to wish Hattie and you, behalf of Hattie, a very merry Christmas.
Are you home or at home?
Not all of you.
Aha!
Aha!
Isn't that great?
Well, yeah.
Yeah, if he comes in... Yeah, I don't know.
Yeah, yeah, let me... Oh, before I get him on the phone, let me say one word.
He can do something.
Henry's a bit depressed because of the, and he shouldn't be because we're doing very well for him, but he's depressed because he's taken a few of the elephants that are going to be into Pakistan, which had to come out the way it did.
I think that you, if you would, because he has, you know, just sort of given the ring and said,
wishing Merry Christmas and saying, oh, some of you paid no attention to this, nitpicking by people about how we handle this, if you feel this way, and say that, because you know, Nelson, we do have a little boy in the state, and they're gloating over it, and it doesn't come out.
Well, hell, any of Pakistan, there's no way it doesn't come out.
And thank God we didn't get involved in the war.
And thank God we saved West Pakistan, which we did.
So if you, if you would do that, I think you'd be good for the process.
He'll be in New York for about two, about three more hours.
He's coming up to the city, or, or, well, the plant is, is qualified on software.
Yeah, it would be helpful.
We hope so.
We, uh, we're having our troubles, you know, shooting up now in the far right, and, uh,
I told John Michael, I said, well, let Ashbrook run.
He gets his 20%, and that's that.
We have some tough things ahead.
We've got this.
We've got to ride off Vietnam.
We will.
We will.
We've got to get to China.
So we'll see.
process as well.
But in the meantime, energy economy is always an issue.
On the plus side, for your immediate purpose, as I told you before, we are going to get revenue sharing going on.
I mean, when I say a sense, Wilbur told me that he knew it was going to be the first thing.
And unless the Senate just totally screws it up, we're going to get it.
That would be a help.
OK. All right.
Well, you can take anybody from the press.
You're welcome to say that the president, based on his conversations with the mills and the leaders, believes that we are, he confidently predicts we will have a revolution.
Revolution.
I just don't know right now whether we have decided to put it in or whatever it is.
But either, because you see it's moving so fast.
Yeah, we still got a couple weeks left.
But in any event, we'll have the money.
Don't worry about that.
Well, the main thing is we're going to ask for it.
In any event, we're going to put the full weight of the administration behind the efforts to get it passed by Congress next year.
Okay.
Well, anyway, have a good Christmas.
Right.
Okay.
Bye.
I appreciate that.
Bye.

NARA Description

On December 24, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Nelson A. Rockefeller met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:06 pm to 2:12 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 309-012 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 309-12

Date: December 24, 1971
Time: 2:06 pm - 2:12 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Nelson A. Rockefeller.

[See Conversation No. 17-13; one item has been withdrawn from the conversation]

Also recorded on December 24, 1971

  • 017-011 1:56 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John W. Chancellor talked on the telephone from 1:56 pm to 2:01 pm.
  • 309-010 1:56 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John W. Chancellor met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:56 pm to 2:01 pm.
  • 017-012 2:01 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:01 pm and 2:06 pm.
  • 309-011 2:01 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 2:01 pm and 2:06 pm.
  • 017-013 2:06 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Nelson A. Rockefeller talked on the telephone from 2:06 pm to 2:12 pm.
  • 017-014 2:12 PM · 4 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:12 pm and 2:16 pm.
  • 309-013 2:12 PM · 8 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 2:12 pm and 2:16 pm.
  • 309-014 2:12 PM · 23 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 2:12 pm and 2:16 pm.

All 54 conversations from December 24, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 309-012, December 24, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/309-012 (accessed October 6, 2026).