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Conversation 500-008

TapeTape 500StartTuesday, May 18, 1971 at 9:34 AMEndTuesday, May 18, 1971 at 9:38 AMTape start time00:13:53Tape end time00:16:37ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Rogers, William P.Recording deviceOval Office
AI Summary

President Nixon and Secretary of State William P. Rogers discussed their firm opposition to a proposed congressional amendment requiring biannual reporting on sensitive diplomatic negotiations, arguing that such transparency would undermine the administration's ability to conduct effective foreign policy. Nixon expressed his intent to maintain a hard line against the amendment, asserting that there was no acceptable compromise to offer lawmakers. The two agreed to postpone a scheduled meeting to accommodate the President's upcoming engagement with state legislators regarding revenue sharing.

foreign policydiplomatic negotiationscongressional relationslegislative oversightrevenue sharing
AudioNARA Description

On May 18, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:34 am to 9:38 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 500-008 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 500-8

Date: May 18, 1971
Time: 9:34 am - 9:38 am
Location: Oval Office

The President talked with William P. Rogers.

[See Conversation No. 3-59]
Transcript (AI-Generated)

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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.

The way we work, you know, I just had, I hope you probably assumed you get the same question, but they brought up a bias amendment this morning.
And I said, oh, the whole idea of reporting every six months and so forth, I said, we just can't take it.
But of course, these guys are all looking for something to vote for.
And there really isn't anything we can give them, is there?
The other thing is that we report all the negotiations every six months to the Congress.
If you're going to have successful negotiations, you can't report to anybody.
You're reporting, you know, well, we've negotiated and so forth.
We lay all the negotiations out.
Who the hell's going to negotiate with us if they know everything's going to be out on the table?
At least... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I've got to go over now to do some legislators.
That's about it.
I'm about to postpone our meeting tomorrow because I've got to...
They have 150 state legislators in here for purposes of revenue sharing.
I've got to go over it again.
So I'll probably get touchy around them.
We'll work out a time tomorrow to get together.
Or maybe later this afternoon.
Yeah, fine, fine.
tomorrow morning at around 10, 30, or 11, probably be a good time, but I'll let you know.
But on this thing, I think the line, can we, the line I took was that I have yet to see any compromise we could accept.
Is that the line you took with these people?
And that we can't take.
Do you agree on that?
The question is what the last minute
I don't know what it is, but the sense of the sun.
He's really going now.
All right, okay.
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