{"conversationCode":"500-008","tapeNumber":500,"conversationNumber":8,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-500-008","startDateTime":"1971-05-18T13:34:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1971-05-18T13:38:00.000Z","startDate":"18-May-1971","startTime":"9:34 AM","endDate":"18-May-1971","endTime":"9:38 AM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"certain","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Rogers, William P.;","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.","locationCode":"OVAL","recordingDevice":"Oval Office","latitudeEstimated":38.8974,"longitudeEstimated":-77.0374,"chronCode":1,"chronRelease":"First Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"5-Oct-1999","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 500-8\n\nDate: May 18, 1971\nTime: 9:34 am - 9:38 am\nLocation: Oval Office\n\nThe President talked with William P. Rogers.\n\n[See Conversation No. 3-59]","filename":["500-008.mp3"],"tapeStart":"00:13:53","tapeEnd":"00:16:37","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Rogers, William P."],"prevCode":"500-007","nextCode":"500-009","transcript":[{"start":10.66,"end":28.25,"text":"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."},{"start":28.27,"end":30.78,"text":"And I said, oh, the whole idea of reporting every six months and so forth, I said, we just can't take it."},{"start":30.8,"end":33.78,"text":"But of course, these guys are all looking for something to vote for."},{"start":33.8,"end":35.83,"text":"And there really isn't anything we can give them, is there?"},{"start":64.14,"end":68.62,"text":"The other thing is that we report all the negotiations every six months to the Congress."},{"start":68.86,"end":73.87,"text":"If you're going to have successful negotiations, you can't report to anybody."},{"start":73.89,"end":76.69,"text":"You're reporting, you know, well, we've negotiated and so forth."},{"start":76.72,"end":77.9,"text":"We lay all the negotiations out."},{"start":77.94,"end":91.97,"text":"Who the hell's going to negotiate with us if they know everything's going to be out on the table?"},{"start":91.99,"end":92.69,"text":"At least... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."},{"start":94.26,"end":105.45,"text":"I've got to go over now to do some legislators."},{"start":106.02,"end":106.58,"text":"That's about it."},{"start":107.38,"end":111.72,"text":"I'm about to postpone our meeting tomorrow because I've got to..."},{"start":112.26,"end":115.55,"text":"They have 150 state legislators in here for purposes of revenue sharing."},{"start":115.57,"end":116.15,"text":"I've got to go over it again."},{"start":116.17,"end":116.97,"text":"So I'll probably get touchy around them."},{"start":116.99,"end":117.95,"text":"We'll work out a time tomorrow to get together."},{"start":117.97,"end":120.85,"text":"Or maybe later this afternoon."},{"start":120.87,"end":121.21,"text":"Yeah, fine, fine."},{"start":122.11,"end":129.42,"text":"tomorrow morning at around 10, 30, or 11, probably be a good time, but I'll let you know."},{"start":129.44,"end":134.64,"text":"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."},{"start":134.66,"end":141.31,"text":"Is that the line you took with these people?"},{"start":141.34,"end":143.18,"text":"And that we can't take."},{"start":143.2,"end":145.66,"text":"Do you agree on that?"},{"start":146.02,"end":148.04,"text":"The question is what the last minute"},{"start":149.75,"end":166.87,"text":"I don't know what it is, but the sense of the sun."},{"start":166.89,"end":167.33,"text":"He's really going now."},{"start":167.35,"end":167.67,"text":"All right, okay."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"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.","topics":["foreign policy","diplomatic negotiations","congressional relations","legislative oversight","revenue sharing"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T22:18:58.926Z"},"topicSlugs":["foreign-policy","diplomatic-negotiations","congressional-relations","legislative-oversight","revenue-sharing"],"audioDurationSec":168,"audioFiles":[{"file":"500-008.mp3","bytes":6713260,"durationSec":167.69,"bitrate":320276,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:49.346Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/500-008.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/500-008","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/500/conversation-500-008","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}