Conversation 417-003

TapeTape 417StartMonday, March 5, 1973 at 2:55 PMEndMonday, March 5, 1973 at 3:25 PMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Kissinger, Henry A.Recording deviceOld Executive Office Building

On March 5, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:55 pm to 3:25 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 417-003 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 417-3

Date: March 5, 1973
Time: 2:55 pm - 3:25 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Henry A. Kissinger.

       Kissinger's meeting with Great Britain’s Defense Minister
              -Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War [APNW]
                     -Draft
                             -Complications
                             -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR] response
                             -Work on draft
                                    -Sir Denis Greenhill
                                    -Sir Burke Trend
                                    -Sir Thomas Brimelow
                                            -Meeting with Kissinger
                             -USSR acceptance
                                    -Basic Principles of Relations between the US and USSR
                     -Response of the People's Republic of China [PRC]
                             -Explanation

       PRC
              -President's letter to Mao Tse-Tung


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
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[Duration: 5s]

INTELLIGENCE

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       APNW
              -Impact on allies
                                       -3-

            NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                               Tape Subject Log
                                (rev. June-2010)
                                                          Conversation No. 417-3 (cont’d)



        -Impact on domestic opposition
        -Allies
                -Great Britain
                -Response
        -PRC
                -Knowledge
                -Kissinger draft of letter
        -Administration's critics
                -Confusion
                -Advancement in US-USSR relations
        -USSR
                -Possible acceptance
        -Compared with Kellog-Briand Treaty

France’s elections
       -Guallists
               -Results
               -United Press International [UPI] report
       -Communists
               -Compared with Socialists
               -Effect on Gaullists
               -Polls
               -Constituencies
               -Analysis for Kissinger
       -Guallists

Chile
        -Election
                -UPI reports
                -Salvador Allende Gossens
                        -Minority vote
                               -Significance
                        -Reasons
                -Press reports
                        -UPI
                        -Compared with France

France’s electoral system
                                        -4-

            NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                 Tape Subject Log
                                  (rev. June-2010)
                                                       Conversation No. 417-3 (cont’d)



       -Majority
       -Districts
               -Gerrymandering
               -Communist vote
                     -Distribution

News reports
      -President’s annotations

-Johnny Express freighter incident
       -Captain Jose Villa
              -Panama
                      -Release
              -Information
                      -Cuban community in US
       -Charles G. ("Bebe") Rebozo
              -News summary
              -Kissinger’s memo
       -Impact on Cuban community in US
              -Wife, children
                      -Telephone call
                      -Visit with Rebozo

Kissinger's talk with Hugh S. Sidey and Joseph C. Kraft
       -Sidey's viewpoint
                -President compared with John F. Kennedy’s foreign policy
                       -President's humanitarian concerns
       -Kraft
                -George S. McGovern as conservative
                -President as progressive on foreign policy
                -Compare with France’s Communist Party
                       -Fear of change

US ambassador to Vietnam
      -Frederick C. Nolting, Jr.
             -President’s note

Party for William P. Rogers
                                        -5-

             NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                Tape Subject Log
                                 (rev. June-2010)
                                                        Conversation No. 417-3 (cont’d)



         -Kissinger's attendance
                -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman’s attendance
                -Casts of plays
         -Nicholas von Hoffman
                -Support for President in 1960
                         -Kennedy
                         -Foreign policy
                -Criticism of President

Kissinger
       -Avoidance of disillusioning supporters
       -Contacts with Sidey, Kraft
              -Frequency

Foreign policy
       -Administration record
       -Press relations
               -Clayton Fraizer’s [?] story
                       -News summary
                       -Comments on Vietnam settlement
                       -Frustration
               -Prisoners of war [POWs] statements upon return
                       -London Sunday Times
                               -Frank Giles [?]
                                      -Criticism of December 1972 bombing [?]
                                      -President’s foreign policy compared with Gen.
                                       Charles A. J. M. de Gaulle
                                      -Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy
                                              -Demoralization

Rogers
         -Luncheon
         -Plaque unveiling
                 -President's attendance
         -Interactions with agencies
                 -Small groups
                 -Defense Department
                        -Gen. Brent G. Scowcroft [?]
                                       -6-

            NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                Tape Subject Log
                                 (rev. June-2010)
                                                       Conversation No. 417-3 (cont’d)



       -Kissinger's call
              -President's attendance at a meeting
                      -Handling of POW situation
                      -Subject of discussion
              -Arrangements compared to Defense Department

President’s letter to Willy Brandt
       -Effect

International monetary policy
        -Letter from Edward R. G. Heath
                -President's talk with George P. Shultz
                -Kissinger
                       -Meeting with Shultz
                       -Meeting with George R. S. Baring [Earl of Cromer]
                       -President’s response
                                -Brimelow
                                        -Attendance at Brandt discussion
                                -Bilateral actions
                                -Common float
                                -Restriction on capital movement

West Germany’s position
      -Telephone call to Kissinger
             -Helmut H. W. Schmidt
             -Finance minister
             -West Germany-US relations
             -Request for US intervention
             -Shultz’s knowledge
      -Impact on European Economic Community [EEC]
      -US intervention
             -Necessity
                     -Shultz’s, President’s opinion
                            -US dollar
             -Schmidt
                     -US inaction
                     -US criticism of Europe
             -Europe’s commitment
                                          -7-

               NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                  Tape Subject Log
                                   (rev. June-2010)
                                                           Conversation No. 417-3 (cont’d)



                  -Reform of international monetary situation
         -Japan
                  -Kakuei Tanaka
                        -Reaction to invitation to US
                                -Arrival of advisor
                  -[Emperor of Japan] Hirohito

Tanaka
         -Visit to US
                 -time

USSR visit to US

President's schedule
       -Visits to San Clemente
               -Kissinger visit
               -Weather

Tanaka visit

Mohammed Reza Pahlavi [Shah of Iran]

Tanaka visit
      -Public statements about US

Press relations
        -Problems
                -1972 election
                -Vietnam settlement
        -Giles [?]
        -Von Hoffman
                -Elizabeth Ashley [?]
                -President’s foreign, domestic policy
                       -Compared with post-World War II presidents
                -Age
                -Comments on President's foreign policy
                       -De Gaulle
                                       -8-

            NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                               Tape Subject Log
                                (rev. June-2010)
                                                        Conversation No. 417-3 (cont’d)



International monetary policy
        -President’s leadership
               -Actions on currency
        -Reform of monetary system
               -West Germany’s position
        -Shultz’s viewpoint
        -President's view of intervention
               -Political impact
                        -EEC

President’s policy toward Latin America and Africa
       -Tokenism
       -Carlos Sanz de Santamaria
               -Organization of American States [OAS]
               -Alliance for Progress
       -Head of state visits
               -Brazil
               -Africa
               -Nigeria
               -Congo
               -Reception
               -Length
               -Brazil
               -Mexico
                       -Reception
                       -Radicals
                              -Size of group
               -Brazil
               -Africa
               -Ivory Coast
               -Liberia
               -Nigeria
               -Congo
               -East Africa
               -Nigeria
                       -Great Britain
               -Congo
                       -Belgium
                                             -9-

                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                      Tape Subject Log
                                       (rev. June-2010)
                                                             Conversation No. 417-3 (cont’d)



                      -Ivory Coast
                             -France
                             -Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon’s visit
                             -Felix Houphouet-Boigny’s visit to US

       International monetary policy
               -Europe
                      -Kissinger’s meeting with Shultz
                      -Dealings with US
               -Kissinger's call to Schmidt
                      -Responsibility for reform
               -Heath, Tanaka
               -Georges J. R. Pompidou
                      -Runoff election
                      -Public statement
                              -Kissinger’s call

Kissinger left at 3:25 pm.

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.

I spent the morning with the British down here on that nuclear treaty.
And it really shows the advantage of the two of them.
They've come up with a treaty draft which is so tricky and so besides the point and at the same time so complicated that I think it would meet our purposes because
If the Russians reject it, we can just say we made a really major effort.
And if they accept it, it looks like a hell of a stand, and it really doesn't mean a hell of a lot.
So in other words, killing their brains and who we're not.
So if you don't know him, the fellow who's coming to play is really tough, and good, and trans.
Some of them come out of your order now.
No, Grimlock, the head of the 50-50.
You don't get all your father to the border in one day.
Grimlock.
He's one you talk to today, yeah.
But they're really very clever.
And I think there's a 50-50 chance that the Russians may accept it, because that ought to be great.
You know, it'd be a little bit less impressive if we agreed to a little bit more of this, basically.
What about the Chinese?
Well, we'd have to explain it to them.
But they don't got to do with the Chinese, and that's why I want to see those letters and scripts and things.
You know, later, I'll put something in there.
We've got to basically just buy a letter.
But I'll, he, I sure, he sure is going to live much longer than I am in this office.
He's got a personal commitment.
That's all he's going to do.
That's the reason I like the letter off the end of the post.
We can get that across to him.
Because let me tell you what this kind of thing does.
It is something that does not disturb our allies.
In one of the things it does, it confounds our enemies at home.
It does.
It's a masterful.
I don't know what to do with it.
Right.
It could go right to the edge of confounding our allies, but that reminds us of the British thing that I said.
I've prepared a job in China.
I feel that it will prepare me.
I'm going to have my letter.
Do you personally have a letter prepared?
Let me ask you a couple of things.
What is the analysis of the French election?
My guess is that the Gauls did a little better than expected.
I noticed that the U.P.I.
was crowing about the stunning victory.
No, no, they were not.
Rather, they were saying, later on, apparently, 10% is not a good result.
And basically, the thing that happened that you thought would help the Gauls, the kindest is that it was the same as the French.
Do you think the law is going to have a good chance?
Well, I have to analyze these percentage figures.
They're very conceiving.
I know what I meant.
But they're better than the poll.
Polls, that's right.
They're better than the poll.
They're 4% better than the poll.
What we have to see is how many constituents of the communists are ahead of the socialists.
Because this is going to be run off by constituents.
Right.
And I'm having that analysis made today.
Well, that would be a great thing.
The law is going to hold on.
Now what happened, what happened down in, uh, Chile?
It was interesting to me that they were there, the UTIs had a destruction victory for our men in the crisis.
They got 41 percent.
He got 41 percent.
It means that the other, his opposition didn't do as much as they wanted, but he still was a minority man.
Exactly.
The victory of, of Alguerre, that it consists of the fact that his opponents didn't get it because the majority of the table counted.
If they had said they'd impeach him and throw him out of office, if they got too good, they only have about 56 or 57 percent.
Now they're against Bolivar on 2 percent, but they have a million.
It's intriguing how well they've done, how the press memory will focus.
And there's a report in the French election, or rather, the French election, to this guy in the corner, I don't know, just tentatively trying to right the goddamn thing.
You're flying right in the face with that.
Oh, they, they are always pretty easy.
But they don't understand the grand intellectuals at all.
Actually, even in percentage groups, the combination of all this, independent republicans in the center, will have a majority.
Even if it went by percentage, now what one has to analyze, and I won't have it until tomorrow morning, is to do it according to districts, because
Actually, the way they've generated the district, Mr. President, a lot of the Communist votes are concentrated in the district.
So that they need a hell of a lot more to gain a majority than just the Democratic Party.
Look, with regard to the situation, I remarked it.
You know that Johnny Express, that Panamanian thing there?
I want to be sure he gets the information so that I can use it with the Cuban community.
I definitely approve of that.
You know he does not have it.
Not that I know of, but I want to know whether it's going to be released, whether or not that happens.
It isn't yet.
Oh, yeah.
I think they're keeping it in the token as well.
So he'll be saying that somebody gives that report to OZO so that he can give it to the Cuban community.
I marked it, well I marked it in the summer, but apparently he hadn't heard anything about it.
I didn't come here all the time.
I know that I'm also, you know, but I just thought she would.
I'm also shocked.
Let me suggest that you have the most effective proposal so that, you know, the Gilbert community, because that little girl is his wife and two daughters.
I suggest to call a thing to get out that one of us might call this to.
Because you had made a commitment to help us to call it.
You call it.
Or the other thing you could do is to, the other thing you could do is to call, is to do, you could call a postal and have him get it over to you.
And that might call.
And then you could, well, I'd have to go out and call to that part of the call community.
And you called in my behalf so that she could get to the letter, because it wasn't easily Spanish.
And I said, I'll get you the book of food.
And they had a great book.
I said, just marvelous.
Just a great beginning out of that book.
I was going to ask you one other thing with regard to, give me a brief, quick rundown.
You said you had a conversation with Saidi and also introduced with Kraft.
indicating that they're rather an enraging viewpoint.
They're taking different approaches.
What was it that they were thinking about?
Sidi's point was that you were the man who was concerned with the humanity, with the people.
Our candidate, he said, was trying to not develop from Washington.
You were trying to involve other people in a
You said that you had really the profoundest humanitarian perception as compared to Kennedy.
Why?
Because you felt that peace would only last if other people thought it was their own, while Kennedy thought it had to be run for more than... America, right, I get it.
And Kraft said that peace capabilities were such a radical thought, how the conservatives, they want to keep the world as it is.
A lot of detents were governed as one analyzed and carefully wanted to go back to some old, primitive American values that not value too much in our society.
They no longer existed, and evil tried to mobilize the people who were resistant to change.
While you were mobilizing the progressive forces in America.
And these detents went on beyond the same ensuing truant rants that the communists are appealing to those who are afraid of change.
I was making him a facet or he had noted whatever became of him.
He said, I don't know.
He said, yeah.
Shouldn't he have a note, one of those notes?
He remembered that he stood firm in that.
And I guess I'll never write one of those, the same note that I wrote to Lodge.
I probably should have Lodge done one of those.
He stood firm all the way.
Now, what did I do?
Last night, you know, I was at a party that I just need to stay.
Yeah, I heard.
Yeah, I heard.
I came late, and so I stayed a little longer.
I came on 10.30.
At the end, Nick Von Hoffman came in.
He was, of course, another friend.
But he suddenly started going on and saying, I was for Nixon in 1960.
Kennedy was out of his ass.
Then he said, Nixon and the campaign of 1960.
What he was really saying was he wanted to put foreign policy on the stages.
And he said, if you listen to them on telecom, radio, and other television,
And then Nixon would have won by 80%.
Where he went off on was absolutely amazing.
And what is happening now in these fashionable circles is that you are becoming a highly respected figure.
He will laugh you three times a week, but in the sort of mudlet that is going around now.
If a year ago, anyway, an Aracha-speaking party had said that you were better than
And then, Kevin, you had a benefit because you were able to see throughout the house, the house, the house, the house.
To take three to six months before that seats into the party.
I thank you, however, I try to do this on a very basis.
You don't have to take our disillusion, our friends, but you ought to try, you know,
to spend a little time on the side of the crack to keep on the strength.
But if they want to come around, we don't.
I don't mean, we don't want them all the time.
We don't want anybody all the time.
We don't expect it.
But I think what we have here right now, we've got an interesting thing.
And the people of the foreign policy, they're so confident and pretty confident that they're going to come all the time.
I mean, they play a very intertwining piece in the news.
I mean, it's fine.
There's a rabbi about the peace with honor and the rest of the peace isn't working and it's a horrible thing to do.
But he's just choking on his drinkers.
The last group of people that came out of this thing, you see what those guys are saying.
And then, first off, the press said, oh, they're going too far and all that.
Now, what the hell?
Frank Giles broke it up some of these times, you see.
And he was, in fact, they were critical about that.
Oh, sure.
But he said he has never seen such a preeminence in publishing in any country since the gold-dominated France-Saturday.
He said he talked to Kennedy and to others.
He said they're totally demoralized, totally delirious.
And I said, oh, yeah.
One other thing I want to ask you about briefly.
I've got a call with Bill Rogers to lay this off.
And I understand it.
I understand that he prefers a lunch with about 20 people, etc.
I think that now I'm second, and he thinks that, as I understand it, they have a plaque along the table with the people.
I don't mind doing that.
I think we ought to play up this, you know, this, this, this.
But it's better to do it with a small group.
That's a good thing.
That's right.
Then they have the same thing.
You want that to happen.
You can do a better thing and let them, when we go over, if you want to get a hold of them.
Because I want to be sure Bill knows what the line is.
You should call Bill and say, look, the president went over to thank them for their hand.
He went into discussions with various, like I said, they want their contributions and so on.
And what I mean is that he'd just like to have a general discussion about their, you know, their organization.
They aren't going to say anything.
But what I mean, I'd like to have them get a feeling that we're giving them the same treatment we are.
What you have to be careful of
And they'll take anything I say in front of them.
But I think the main thing, and that's the reason I want you to call in.
I want you to call and say, look, if you don't give any replies, we'll just all do it and say, no, no, no.
That's your letter to the president.
Before you get that, I want to ask you one other thing.
I talked to Schultz.
He called me yesterday and said he's gotten a letter from Dean.
Yeah, I know.
So come now, and Schultz is going to let me know later.
I don't, and I told Schultz, you know, that he, you, from now on, we're going to meet with nobody else.
He's meeting with me at 6 o'clock tonight.
I had a good chance to talk to Krohmer this morning, also.
You really shook up the peace.
It was a very sensitive attack, which you can't have any.
And what they have in mind is quite, quite persistent technically.
We have no objection to a common slope as long as they don't put restrictions on us.
And that's what they promised to do.
Now, I've had a personal phone call from Andrew Schmidt, who is the German finance minister.
He just called me 15 minutes ago.
And he said, look, we will never do anything against you.
But he said, what you have to do for us is to indicate that you're ready to intervene.
It's necessary.
Now that it's come to us,
Yeah, but what Schmidt said to me was
Okay, what I would like to do is this.
I would be willing, frankly, to consider interventions about it provided we can get a commitment on their part before the colon can go through for
that they have for a basic reform.
In other words, let one of the legacies of our administration be that we did reform the international monetary situation.
I think now our life in Japan is very good, too.
I had to read a strike call.
That was a strike call.
Yes, it's back.
It's like somebody died over to show not need to the Europeans.
It did.
It did great.
He was thrilled that he's sending one of his top advisors right over.
What do you want us to do?
He should come before the emperor, I guess.
He doesn't want to come before the emperor.
That's a very good concern.
Summer.
Aye.
That's good.
If anybody wants to come to summer, great.
But he wants to come to Washington.
Yes.
But we could get a mandate if he wanted.
Not a good time.
The Russians.
Do you think the Russians would be the latter part of Europe?
I'd say, for your information, if you know, we're going to spend 10 days in San Clemente in July, over the 4th of July, and we're going to spend 10 days in San Clemente, the last part of August, in Labor Hill.
So that'll be a good time to do it, your kids and all of us.
And the weather is fantastic.
So those days, we've got to mark out the other values we're doing in July.
Fair enough.
Excellent.
It could be the latter part of July.
We can put him on there if we'd like to have him.
All right, I'll take a whack at that.
That's Tanaka.
You know what the fight is?
We have to go through the hell in the center.
After ending the war, you know how that is.
But I think our religion, I actually recall a child, I think Van Hoffman was part of it.
Whenever we go through this process, oh, another thing Van Hoffman said, let's face it, that actress Elizabeth Ashley was there, she said to Van Hoffman, are you saying that there's a good Elizabeth Ashley actress in this place?
He said, how can you, a radical, say that Nixon has the best foreign policy in the last 15 years?
He said, I'm not saying that.
I'm saying he's got the best foreign policy of the post-war period.
He said, I can't stand him in domestic policy, but the foreign policy is the best in the last, in the post-war period.
What is Van Gogh's attitude?
He was a young man.
A young man.
Great man.
Right.
Van Gogh.
He was a great man.
The child is stupid.
Oh, child is stupid.
Well, Hoffman is a screwed-up guy.
I mention him only because he's an old, ratted, field-skilled, doing-well-in-the-public public.
Child thinks he has not seen such political preeminence since he goes into crime.
But what we want to do now, which is really worthy of it, and I know that makes you put it back in your mind, but I think what we did this weekend was recurrent to
has put you in a delicious position because you can have a couple of interventions with a demand that the monetary system seems to be pulling very rapidly.
I think you get the two of us on your side.
You're going to have to argue like all of us with Schultz in terms of an intervention.
You understand either the intervention or non-intervention totally depends on Schultz.
For me,
What really matters is the political effect of the world.
And I didn't mean a mistake on Saturday.
I would have looked like an attempt to bust up to you if not one other thing I could have said.
I think that I have been thinking a lot about Africa and Latin America.
I think that tokenism is all we can give to either of us.
I can really come down to it.
I have virtually reached a conclusion of what I have to do
What's that called, the head of the OAS?
Santa Cruz.
Head of the, not of the OAS, Santa Maria.
All right, fine.
But anyway, Henry, a trip to Brazil and maybe one other, a small country, maybe, I don't know, maybe three, one based option in Brazil.
And a trip to Africa.
and Brazil, and it's an enormous fact that we could have gotten that to a government report.
Africa, we could pick the countries that are in our country.
I could go to the country, or I could go to Nigeria, or somewhere.
But my point is, my point is that there, the destiny of parents and caring about the Africans and the rest of being well-received, we'll get a hell of a reception.
I think it's a good thing.
We'll go through things.
Take a week in case we work our butts off.
I think it was a great reception.
I actually don't know if there's a way to do that, but I was radical and I thought we could create a little more of that.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I've been to Congo, too.
I've never been to Nigeria.
We probably ought to go to countries we haven't been to.
But I have been.
I've been to Nigeria.
I've been to Nigeria.
I've been to Nigeria.
I've been to Nigeria.
but if we have the idea
And so you worked on Schultz tonight, but my view is having put it to the Europeans, I think that now they have moved our direction.
We just can't sit here and say hello.
You see, what I would like to do is to call Smith back on Wednesday and say that you personally overrode a lot of technical considerations.
Are you willing to do this?
If he takes the lead photograph,
Yeah, and why don't you tell me that they're not going to say anything.
Do you agree?
Yeah.
Now, is there anything, I don't want to do anything that would hurt the company.
Nothing?
Nothing will hurt me.
Is there anything we can do in this field, for example, this week that would help you in the runoff election?
That's the other thing.
I'll think of that.
See if there's anything that we can do.
They probably would want to announce on this thing.
Let's do it.
Let's play girl.
So their present game is to announce nothing until after the 5.
But you know what I mean.
But I'll call in the president.
Right.
Okay.