Nixon, Haldeman & Kissinger on SALT and Arms Control

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Let's go, Fulbright.

Cheers.

Stay.

That's good.

The Senate is very pleased with my notice, yeah, but they don't understand it.

That's the real problem I think we've got with most people in the political crisis.

Except that I think your point made on the vote that, well, they're going to know that it was the Soviet Americans.

agreement of some sort.

That's going to have an enormous effect.

Yeah.

And over a period of time, it's going to have an effect because sophisticated people will start trying to analyze it.

Yeah.

Our guys, Kevin, it's funny.

They sit there and they don't know what to do.

I was watching them this morning.

They don't know how to react.

Well, they were fine.

Yeah, but they don't, you know, they're a little, of course, there you have, it was a little awkward because you had quite a few undersecretaries.

Sorry.

It wasn't a great thing for them to hear, though, to have an undersecretary.

It really was.

And bringing in, I already had the same view that you did about the final step.

You had said earlier, fill it with steps.

Did I say it?

Yeah.

Yeah, you had said the other night too.

Yeah, well, it was a whole bunch.

We got everybody that we could.

There were some of them that aren't here.

And so, sure, because it's exciting to be in something like that.

I must say, good old Connelly.

Couldn't have been better, but he came on at the end.

So I think, very frankly, most of us know more about this than we ought to know right now.

I think we ought to end the meeting.

I'm afraid he was concerned about getting into the tricky thing.

Well, the tricky thing was right here.

That was good.

It was knocked out.

This was going to be coming up.

Thank God the boat wasn't the way it was.

that we didn't give them any.

But I think that we didn't use this before the vote.

The Liberty League was damn good winning, hitting the vote as hard as it did.

Now, of course, we're over the Farrells.

I told Henry Long before we got, I mean, last week, I said, you realize, man, we put out this damn agreement.

We're in a Farrell and Maymont.

They are.

I mean, they can get around.

They don't have any public opinion.

I think the people want some sort of Soviet America agreement.

We might as well get it while I'm here.

You know what I mean?

It'll be a better one than anybody else's.

That's it.

If you don't do it, someone's going to do it a lot more.

It really has.

Tonight at 6 o'clock, we're going to have .

And I see members .

I don't want to say .

But I'd like advice from his wife and wives for a little cocktail.

Everybody's wife should.

Yes.

we still should go with the soft delegation thing tomorrow morning so we can go oh yes okay sir

Walk out on the balcony.

Get on the balcony if you want to drive.

In very special periods, we use the balcony as well.

We don't open the things that we'd like to use just in case they want to walk on the balcony and see the view.

That's the pursuit.

We've got all over the world.

Don't work it out.

She hasn't been told.

Tom is all right.

He has a list.

Lincoln, of course.

All the NSC members.

Helms.

Mitchell.

And have the whole...

I had a booze since I had served in the kitchen that fast.

I mean, they better have a little bar.

I mean, they have about 30 sessions, but I think it'll be 25, about 25 or 30 people now.

You can use the hall as well as the room.

It's awfully nice when you get, you know, when you feel you can do it upstairs.

I know.

It means so much in public rooms.

It means much to be in the White House at all, but it adds a little something special.

I'm really working on this briefing, what the questions are going to be.

But also, what are the headlines?

How do you make the headlines?

It'll be very interesting to see how this comes out, because this is the first time we've really tried.

Whether to see whether Henry tracks with it or not, that's what I'm going to talk to Scali about afterwards.

Because he wasn't really tracking yesterday yet.

But I don't think he had really gotten it.

Remember, Scali kept having to throw in the lead on the answer as well as the question.

It's hard for him to do it.

Yeah, because he wants to explain the answer.

He's so smart.

So smart.

And a very, very responsible guy.

But Scali, he was just .

He says, all right, where do you get the storage?

We had storage on the lawn actually.

And that'll, that's the thing we can, because Gallop, he's been telling us all the time, he's always a goddamn fool.

He was, he's just been beside himself all week, because, you know, knowing about it ahead of time, being involved in it, and then all the other...

There was an interesting thing I saw, Gallop told me,

who they would take to the east side next to the run.

Yeah, that's a good one.

Reagan comes out way in the top 12.

I think it was very good.

It's not bad, too.

It was 31-25.

Rockefeller in 19.

I think that Reagan and Reagan really dominate the theater.

I mean, the concertos are dominant.

That's all there is to it.

Boston, 21%.

7.5, or 7.5, you know, still 7.5.

Yeah, 7.3.

Okay, wait.

It's a...

It's a three-hour flight.

Three-hour, 10-minute flight.

What about the ISO?

The problem is, if you do the dinner, you can't do it on the 26th.

And the 27th is the Kennedy dinner, and everybody who's anybody in Washington is going to that.

And it kind of is a bad thing, I think, for you to give up.

It seems to me the thing to do is do something.

Something on the day of the 27th.

The last we got was what they were really after was having an arrival.

Now, if we could do an arrival in a morning meeting, that would take care of it.

How the hell are we going to do that and not get him a meal?

He isn't expecting a meal anyway.

He's only expecting an office visit.

I think we should go right now and get an arrival with the troops and everything.

That's what he was hoping to do.

That may be all right.

Some people might be looking at it as a trumpet's playing.

Why do you look at it like that?

Well, it's shaking.

Not as his schedule elsewhere.

He's bouncing around.

See, the funny stuff is, uh, I have to pay before the press conference.

I don't want to get in the turf.

That's only the ad for me, you know.

Just don't get me involved.

I think it is.

I don't know if it works so well.

But it's, um... That was apparently the problem.

You won't pay the interim on the 6th.

I don't think it's awkward.

That's the best thing.

Now, what are we going to launch on the 26th?

I'm not sure.

The 26th is, I think, the problem.

If we can't do that, then should we do a morning thing on the 27th?

Hi.

How are you?

I'm just great with the TV people.

Jerry Smith feels, and I agree with him, and I agree strongly with him, that we should not have any more congressional consultations today.

We are just going to be forced into saying too much if we go around the hill now.

And he's going to be back on the 28th after the recess.

We get our position clear then.

But the problem is, I think, is only the questions of whether or not some of the others can be told.

Only what these people were told.

These guys weren't told much this morning.

I talked with Larry.

Larry's willing to cancel.

Good.

Let's go.

Uh, I just, things left the Congress to get out.

Matter of fact, might be left a few of them to get out on the left.

But you, were you there?

The, the leaders?

What did you get out on the left?

I left a few minutes earlier to go to your office.

Jesus Christ.

And everything.

Did you notice that I think Fulbright didn't say a word?

Mansfield didn't say a word to you?

Yeah, but I mean.

No.

Because things that, I don't know.

Mansfield, the rest of them didn't say a word of how the others all knew.

All right.

I'm generous.

Well, someone should tell John Tower before then.

All right.

Because he led the APM battle.

He has both ears.

We should expect him to.

We can make a few official calls telling him what it is, but he'll go beyond.

Let me ask him.

Wait a minute.

How did the reason go?

Oh, very well.

For some of them, he didn't understand.

I'd explain it.

But, uh...

They just don't physically understand the issue.

Richard of the UP or AP, whatever he is, he's so dumb that I had to go over it three or four times.

Uh-huh.

That's not necessarily a problem.

I would guess Richard from everyone would have any idea what it was, huh?

So I know that something significant is happening.

Oh, yes.

Oh, the TV guys were very good on it.

Campbell, Rouser, and so forth.

Yeah, they were.

And, uh, no, it went very well.

Uh, and there was...

I wish I could give greetings like this every day.

There was no hostility.

They were stupid.

They just didn't... Two or three didn't understand.

Talk about your secrets, too.

Really, this has not been... Have we done a good job on that for once?

Sure, Mr. President.

I think the whole thing's done beautifully.

Yeah.

Can I... We've got one second.

Listen to my left, my favorite once more.

I just want to do...

I don't...

The Soviet-American talks on the belief of clear arms have been deadlocked for over a year.

As a result of negotiations involving the highest level of both governments, I am announcing today a significant development in breaking the deadlock.

The statement I shall not read is being issued simultaneously in Moscow and Washington, the state of Detroit.

This agreement is a major step in breaking the stalemate under the clear arms talks.

Intensive negotiation, however, will be required to translate this understanding into a concrete agreement.

This statement expresses the commitment of the Soviet and American governments at the highest levels to achieve that goal.

If we succeed, this translated issue today of the two governments will be remembrance of the beginning of a new era in which all nations can increasingly devote their energies and resources not to weapons of war but to the works of peace.

I'd like it if we could succeed that way.

Rather than I hold that.

If you succeed, just stop and look up.

If we succeed, this will be the game I can do better.

I agree.

It's a very other size.

That's right.

And it'll be understood that it's awfully good to close off with a straight personal contact.

I don't understand.

See, that's the point Erdogan made on the phone.

I think he was absolutely right.

So, I think Erdogan made his point as well-taken, except that the fact that there's a Soviet-American agreement on anything is a very important thing.

Let me put it this way, Bob.

It's like the announcement of the summit.

Shit, nothing was accomplished as I've asked for.

That's right.

But it meant a hell of a lot.

See, the summit's going on.

What's the summit?

See my point?

It's that point.

See, the tendency of all of our people to say, well, now, what does this really mean?

We're all intelligent intellectuals.

Well, it doesn't matter what it means.

I mean, it really doesn't.

In the public sense, it really doesn't mean anything.

It's only a step in there.

But it's...

I need that for one minute before 12.

It's very important that I do that.

It's a live television at 12.

The reason is that I want the stadium to start reading.

Oh, well, I guess it isn't all that important.

10, 9, 7, 8.

All these bills .

Yeah.

I want this thing here.

Well, Rose has got a copy of it.

She's going to change the name for Will.

May for Will.

The press.

The press .

It's just as it is, except it's going to be in May rather than well.

We should get it from Rose.

And check it off.

We should get it.

I mean, people have said that clearly you're not going to have any progress on this thing.

I think we're going to have to do this now.

Obviously, it's a deadlock.

We're not going to get anywhere.

So let's have a better start doing other things.

Awesome.

I think I'm right.

I want to double check.

Wait a minute.

You don't have to be copying anything.

See where it's wrong.

You want to check the letter?

Let's see.

There it is.

Sign it, Mark.

I don't use them enough.

The other thing is

I have a hot and cold water tap.

The hot water, after approximately 30 seconds or to a minute, runs out and becomes not cold,

the hot water simply, it isn't adjusted properly.

They've got it, I want it adjusted so that the hot water will run hot as long as I want to keep the damn hot water out.

See what I'm saying?

So how did you get the, get over Rick Scott, or whoever the hell runs that place, and said, I'll fix it.

And Charlie's never worked properly.

Johnson had a huge, you know, discussion there and changed it since then.

What happens, I get in and take a shower and turn on the warm water.

I got a snack after about 36 minutes of that locker shower.

God, it gets cold here.

It's cold.

It's the White House of all places.

Can you imagine?

And then I wait right here, and I'm just looking in there, and it's all screwed up.

I think, huh, the floor is all screwed up.

And they probably have started inviting others in.

No reason to listen to this guy.

Oh.

Why not?

Wait, I'm going to ask you.

Let's go.

Hello.

Hello, Gary.

I just thought that you would be amused by all the personal quietness.

One night, Gary told them

Yeah, they don't really realize what they're up to.

Well, they do.

But, you know, here's the very thing.

I tried to tell, you know, you can see now why I was taking the line I did in the leadership meeting.

I was being so hard on Dominic because, you know, I was trying to tell these guys what both were doing, but I can't tell you what, because I knew it was a leadership meeting, two years, and I had this chair.

See my wife?

But, uh...

Just these boys, let me tell you, to all of our, our, all of your friends down there, have they not stood for ABM?

Have they not?

And that is, we wouldn't have a deal now with the chance for the most important negotiations since World War II has been made possible by the fact that we voted ABM.

It's cold and sudden.

All right.

Good.

Good evening.

I'll give Ron these and take one to run.

They'll need to do more.

I have those out there.

They don't care.

Mr. President, we're coming after two men who've stopped to send Mark Greer.

Good morning, Mr. President.

I've got three minutes.

I'm Ron David.

I'll stand at the top of those three stairs with you.

There'll be an announcement by White House Communications.

The man driving in on that move is the podium.

The cool camera will be directly in front of you, but I live about 20 feet down the road.

It's the only way you have to worry about it.

There's a water report.

Yes, sir.

Just turn it on.

And then, Ron, I'll escort you off to the end of the day.

Thank you very much.

And, uh, about, uh, two and a half minutes.

Yeah.

You mean you want me, uh...

Okay.

Well, they have the PMs.

I'll break the PMs for ten minutes.

Let's go.

Sheldon.

Uh...

I forget.

Cormier.

What is it?

Oh, they understood.

The thing I have to keep them from doing is to write it as if the Soviets had completely moved to our position.

No, that's right.

Mr. O'Brien, that much?

Yeah.

And...

I think putting this, if we succeed... That's beautiful.

...in this joint statement issued today by the two governments, may he remember.

rather than will be.

It's the beginning of a new year in which all nations can increasingly develop a service, a service not to weapons of war, but to the works of God.

I wonder whether we couldn't release the whole statement.

We have already.

It's beautiful.

I thought the leaders of the United States and the leaders of the United States and the leaders of the United States

Nixon, Haldeman & Kissinger on SALT and Arms Control

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on May 20, 1971

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