Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 502-011
Date: Thursday, May 20, 1971 at 11:18 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Butterfield, Alexander P.; Kissinger, Henry A.; Bull, Stephen B.; Ford, Gerald R.; Woods, Rose Mary; Goode, Mark I.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/502-011

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Let's go, Fulbright.
[0:26] Cheers.
[0:26] Stay.
[0:36] That's good.
[0:50] That's good.
[1:05] The Senate is very pleased with my notice, yeah, but they don't understand it.
[1:17] That's the real problem I think we've got with most people in the political crisis.
[1:19] Except that I think your point made on the vote that, well, they're going to know that it was the Soviet Americans.
[1:22] agreement of some sort.
[1:32] That's going to have an enormous effect.
[1:38] Yeah.
[1:41] And over a period of time, it's going to have an effect because sophisticated people will start trying to analyze it.
[1:50] Yeah.
[1:51] Our guys, Kevin, it's funny.
[1:55] They sit there and they don't know what to do.
[1:58] I was watching them this morning.
[2:00] They don't know how to react.
[2:05] Well, they were fine.
[2:05] 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.
[2:15] Sorry.
[2:16] It wasn't a great thing for them to hear, though, to have an undersecretary.
[2:19] It really was.
[2:25] And bringing in, I already had the same view that you did about the final step.
[2:33] You had said earlier, fill it with steps.
[2:36] Did I say it?
[2:37] Yeah.
[2:37] Yeah, you had said the other night too.
[2:40] Yeah, well, it was a whole bunch.
[2:41] We got everybody that we could.
[2:41] There were some of them that aren't here.
[2:42] And so, sure, because it's exciting to be in something like that.
[2:47] I must say, good old Connelly.
[2:50] Couldn't have been better, but he came on at the end.
[2:55] So I think, very frankly, most of us know more about this than we ought to know right now.
[3:06] I think we ought to end the meeting.
[3:08] I'm afraid he was concerned about getting into the tricky thing.
[3:10] Well, the tricky thing was right here.
[3:13] That was good.
[3:14] It was knocked out.
[3:16] It was knocked out.
[3:22] This was going to be coming up.
[3:42] Thank God the boat wasn't the way it was.
[3:52] that we didn't give them any.
[3:55] But I think that we didn't use this before the vote.
[4:02] The Liberty League was damn good winning, hitting the vote as hard as it did.
[4:09] Now, of course, we're over the Farrells.
[4:11] I told Henry Long before we got, I mean, last week, I said, you realize, man, we put out this damn agreement.
[4:18] We're in a Farrell and Maymont.
[4:20] They are.
[4:20] I mean, they can get around.
[4:21] They don't have any public opinion.
[4:22] I think the people want some sort of Soviet America agreement.
[4:29] We might as well get it while I'm here.
[4:34] You know what I mean?
[4:35] It'll be a better one than anybody else's.
[4:38] That's it.
[4:39] If you don't do it, someone's going to do it a lot more.
[5:00] It really has.
[5:20] Tonight at 6 o'clock, we're going to have .
[5:24] And I see members .
[5:27] I don't want to say .
[5:28] But I'd like advice from his wife and wives for a little cocktail.
[5:29] Everybody's wife should.
[5:30] Yes.
[5:45] we still should go with the soft delegation thing tomorrow morning so we can go oh yes okay sir
[6:11] Walk out on the balcony.
[6:17] Get on the balcony if you want to drive.
[6:20] In very special periods, we use the balcony as well.
[6:21] 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.
[6:25] That's the pursuit.
[6:26] We've got all over the world.
[6:28] Don't work it out.
[6:38] She hasn't been told.
[6:40] Tom is all right.
[6:41] He has a list.
[6:43] Lincoln, of course.
[6:45] All the NSC members.
[6:54] Helms.
[6:54] Mitchell.
[6:54] And have the whole...
[6:57] I had a booze since I had served in the kitchen that fast.
[7:11] I mean, they better have a little bar.
[7:15] I mean, they have about 30 sessions, but I think it'll be 25, about 25 or 30 people now.
[7:18] You can use the hall as well as the room.
[7:23] It's awfully nice when you get, you know, when you feel you can do it upstairs.
[7:25] I know.
[7:26] It means so much in public rooms.
[7:33] It means much to be in the White House at all, but it adds a little something special.
[7:40] I'm really working on this briefing, what the questions are going to be.
[7:42] But also, what are the headlines?
[7:44] How do you make the headlines?
[7:45] It'll be very interesting to see how this comes out, because this is the first time we've really tried.
[7:50] Whether to see whether Henry tracks with it or not, that's what I'm going to talk to Scali about afterwards.
[7:55] Because he wasn't really tracking yesterday yet.
[7:58] But I don't think he had really gotten it.
[8:01] Remember, Scali kept having to throw in the lead on the answer as well as the question.
[8:08] It's hard for him to do it.
[8:09] Yeah, because he wants to explain the answer.
[8:11] He's so smart.
[8:17] So smart.
[8:18] And a very, very responsible guy.
[8:19] But Scali, he was just .
[8:19] He says, all right, where do you get the storage?
[8:21] We had storage on the lawn actually.
[8:25] 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.
[8:45] 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...
[8:50] There was an interesting thing I saw, Gallop told me,
[8:51] who they would take to the east side next to the run.
[9:01] Yeah, that's a good one.
[9:03] Reagan comes out way in the top 12.
[9:07] I think it was very good.
[9:08] It's not bad, too.
[9:10] It was 31-25.
[9:10] Rockefeller in 19.
[9:10] I think that Reagan and Reagan really dominate the theater.
[9:12] I mean, the concertos are dominant.
[9:15] That's all there is to it.
[9:16] Boston, 21%.
[9:28] 7.5, or 7.5, you know, still 7.5.
[9:34] Yeah, 7.3.
[9:34] Okay, wait.
[9:36] It's a...
[9:38] It's a three-hour flight.
[9:40] Three-hour, 10-minute flight.
[9:44] What about the ISO?
[9:49] The problem is, if you do the dinner, you can't do it on the 26th.
[10:00] And the 27th is the Kennedy dinner, and everybody who's anybody in Washington is going to that.
[10:07] And it kind of is a bad thing, I think, for you to give up.
[10:12] It seems to me the thing to do is do something.
[10:15] Something on the day of the 27th.
[10:18] The last we got was what they were really after was having an arrival.
[10:34] Now, if we could do an arrival in a morning meeting, that would take care of it.
[10:43] How the hell are we going to do that and not get him a meal?
[10:44] He isn't expecting a meal anyway.
[10:45] He's only expecting an office visit.
[10:45] I think we should go right now and get an arrival with the troops and everything.
[10:48] That's what he was hoping to do.
[10:55] That may be all right.
[10:58] Some people might be looking at it as a trumpet's playing.
[11:01] Why do you look at it like that?
[11:04] Well, it's shaking.
[11:15] Not as his schedule elsewhere.
[11:22] He's bouncing around.
[11:26] See, the funny stuff is, uh, I have to pay before the press conference.
[11:33] I don't want to get in the turf.
[11:35] That's only the ad for me, you know.
[11:37] Just don't get me involved.
[11:37] I think it is.
[11:38] I don't know if it works so well.
[11:38] But it's, um... That was apparently the problem.
[11:40] You won't pay the interim on the 6th.
[11:42] I don't think it's awkward.
[11:44] That's the best thing.
[11:45] Now, what are we going to launch on the 26th?
[12:03] I'm not sure.
[12:03] The 26th is, I think, the problem.
[12:08] If we can't do that, then should we do a morning thing on the 27th?
[12:11] Hi.
[12:11] How are you?
[12:11] I'm just great with the TV people.
[12:13] Jerry Smith feels, and I agree with him, and I agree strongly with him, that we should not have any more congressional consultations today.
[12:27] We are just going to be forced into saying too much if we go around the hill now.
[12:32] And he's going to be back on the 28th after the recess.
[12:45] We get our position clear then.
[12:46] But the problem is, I think, is only the questions of whether or not some of the others can be told.
[12:50] Only what these people were told.
[12:51] These guys weren't told much this morning.
[12:52] I talked with Larry.
[12:53] Larry's willing to cancel.
[12:54] Good.
[12:54] Let's go.
[12:55] Uh, I just, things left the Congress to get out.
[12:59] Matter of fact, might be left a few of them to get out on the left.
[13:06] But you, were you there?
[13:08] The, the leaders?
[13:09] What did you get out on the left?
[13:09] I left a few minutes earlier to go to your office.
[13:11] Jesus Christ.
[13:11] And everything.
[13:11] Did you notice that I think Fulbright didn't say a word?
[13:15] Mansfield didn't say a word to you?
[13:19] Yeah, but I mean.
[13:19] No.
[13:20] Because things that, I don't know.
[13:21] Mansfield, the rest of them didn't say a word of how the others all knew.
[13:25] All right.
[13:28] I'm generous.
[13:29] Well, someone should tell John Tower before then.
[13:37] All right.
[13:37] All right.
[13:37] Because he led the APM battle.
[13:38] He has both ears.
[13:39] We should expect him to.
[13:40] We can make a few official calls telling him what it is, but he'll go beyond.
[13:43] Let me ask him.
[13:43] Wait a minute.
[13:44] How did the reason go?
[13:45] Oh, very well.
[13:46] For some of them, he didn't understand.
[13:48] I'd explain it.
[13:50] But, uh...
[13:51] They just don't physically understand the issue.
[13:53] Richard of the UP or AP, whatever he is, he's so dumb that I had to go over it three or four times.
[14:03] Uh-huh.
[14:04] That's not necessarily a problem.
[14:05] I would guess Richard from everyone would have any idea what it was, huh?
[14:08] So I know that something significant is happening.
[14:12] Oh, yes.
[14:12] Oh, the TV guys were very good on it.
[14:17] Campbell, Rouser, and so forth.
[14:19] Yeah, they were.
[14:19] And, uh, no, it went very well.
[14:23] Uh, and there was...
[14:26] I wish I could give greetings like this every day.
[14:31] There was no hostility.
[14:33] They were stupid.
[14:34] They just didn't... Two or three didn't understand.
[14:36] Talk about your secrets, too.
[14:38] Really, this has not been... Have we done a good job on that for once?
[14:42] Sure, Mr. President.
[14:43] I think the whole thing's done beautifully.
[14:46] Yeah.
[14:46] Can I... We've got one second.
[14:47] Listen to my left, my favorite once more.
[14:48] I just want to do...
[14:48] I don't...
[14:49] The Soviet-American talks on the belief of clear arms have been deadlocked for over a year.
[14:58] As a result of negotiations involving the highest level of both governments, I am announcing today a significant development in breaking the deadlock.
[15:06] The statement I shall not read is being issued simultaneously in Moscow and Washington, the state of Detroit.
[15:09] This agreement is a major step in breaking the stalemate under the clear arms talks.
[15:11] Intensive negotiation, however, will be required to translate this understanding into a concrete agreement.
[15:16] This statement expresses the commitment of the Soviet and American governments at the highest levels to achieve that goal.
[15:23] 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.
[15:37] I'd like it if we could succeed that way.
[15:38] Rather than I hold that.
[15:42] If you succeed, just stop and look up.
[16:03] If we succeed, this will be the game I can do better.
[16:12] I agree.
[16:14] It's a very other size.
[16:16] That's right.
[16:17] And it'll be understood that it's awfully good to close off with a straight personal contact.
[16:32] I don't understand.
[16:32] See, that's the point Erdogan made on the phone.
[16:35] I think he was absolutely right.
[16:37] 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.
[16:47] Let me put it this way, Bob.
[16:49] It's like the announcement of the summit.
[16:54] Shit, nothing was accomplished as I've asked for.
[16:57] That's right.
[16:57] But it meant a hell of a lot.
[16:59] See, the summit's going on.
[17:01] What's the summit?
[17:01] See my point?
[17:02] It's that point.
[17:03] See, the tendency of all of our people to say, well, now, what does this really mean?
[17:06] We're all intelligent intellectuals.
[17:07] Well, it doesn't matter what it means.
[17:08] I mean, it really doesn't.
[17:10] In the public sense, it really doesn't mean anything.
[17:15] It's only a step in there.
[17:17] But it's...
[17:18] I need that for one minute before 12.
[17:24] It's very important that I do that.
[17:27] It's a live television at 12.
[17:28] The reason is that I want the stadium to start reading.
[17:31] Oh, well, I guess it isn't all that important.
[17:32] 10, 9, 7, 8.
[17:53] All these bills .
[18:12] Yeah.
[18:13] I want this thing here.
[18:13] Well, Rose has got a copy of it.
[18:20] She's going to change the name for Will.
[18:21] May for Will.
[18:21] The press.
[18:22] The press .
[18:23] It's just as it is, except it's going to be in May rather than well.
[18:38] We should get it from Rose.
[18:38] And check it off.
[18:39] We should get it.
[18:58] I mean, people have said that clearly you're not going to have any progress on this thing.
[19:14] I think we're going to have to do this now.
[19:15] Obviously, it's a deadlock.
[19:16] We're not going to get anywhere.
[19:17] So let's have a better start doing other things.
[19:21] Awesome.
[19:30] I think I'm right.
[19:38] I want to double check.
[20:11] Wait a minute.
[20:30] You don't have to be copying anything.
[20:31] See where it's wrong.
[20:31] You want to check the letter?
[20:32] Let's see.
[20:32] There it is.
[20:32] Sign it, Mark.
[20:41] I don't use them enough.
[21:06] The other thing is
[21:12] I have a hot and cold water tap.
[21:19] The hot water, after approximately 30 seconds or to a minute, runs out and becomes not cold,
[21:29] the hot water simply, it isn't adjusted properly.
[21:49] 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.
[21:52] See what I'm saying?
[21:52] So how did you get the, get over Rick Scott, or whoever the hell runs that place, and said, I'll fix it.
[21:55] And Charlie's never worked properly.
[21:55] Johnson had a huge, you know, discussion there and changed it since then.
[21:57] What happens, I get in and take a shower and turn on the warm water.
[21:59] I got a snack after about 36 minutes of that locker shower.
[22:16] God, it gets cold here.
[22:17] It's cold.
[22:20] It's the White House of all places.
[22:21] Can you imagine?
[22:21] And then I wait right here, and I'm just looking in there, and it's all screwed up.
[22:23] I think, huh, the floor is all screwed up.
[22:26] And they probably have started inviting others in.
[22:27] No reason to listen to this guy.
[22:28] Oh.
[22:28] Why not?
[22:28] Wait, I'm going to ask you.
[22:29] Let's go.
[23:44] Hello.
[23:59] Hello.
[23:59] Hello, Gary.
[24:08] I just thought that you would be amused by all the personal quietness.
[24:12] One night, Gary told them
[24:17] Yeah, they don't really realize what they're up to.
[24:20] Well, they do.
[24:21] But, you know, here's the very thing.
[24:23] I tried to tell, you know, you can see now why I was taking the line I did in the leadership meeting.
[24:33] 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.
[24:42] See my wife?
[24:45] But, uh...
[24:45] Just these boys, let me tell you, to all of our, our, all of your friends down there, have they not stood for ABM?
[24:58] Have they not?
[24:59] 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.
[25:07] It's cold and sudden.
[25:09] All right.
[25:09] Good.
[25:10] Good evening.
[25:33] Good evening.
[25:37] Good evening.
[25:37] Good evening.
[25:42] I'll give Ron these and take one to run.
[25:58] They'll need to do more.
[25:58] I have those out there.
[25:59] They don't care.
[26:13] Mr. President, we're coming after two men who've stopped to send Mark Greer.
[26:32] Good morning, Mr. President.
[26:42] I've got three minutes.
[26:45] I'm Ron David.
[26:46] I'll stand at the top of those three stairs with you.
[26:50] There'll be an announcement by White House Communications.
[26:51] The man driving in on that move is the podium.
[26:52] The cool camera will be directly in front of you, but I live about 20 feet down the road.
[26:54] It's the only way you have to worry about it.
[26:55] There's a water report.
[26:56] Yes, sir.
[26:56] Just turn it on.
[26:56] And then, Ron, I'll escort you off to the end of the day.
[26:58] Thank you very much.
[27:04] And, uh, about, uh, two and a half minutes.
[27:11] Yeah.
[27:12] You mean you want me, uh...
[27:14] Okay.
[27:14] Well, they have the PMs.
[27:16] I'll break the PMs for ten minutes.
[27:18] Let's go.
[27:18] Let's go.
[27:19] Let's go.
[27:20] Sheldon.
[27:22] Uh...
[27:23] I forget.
[27:23] Cormier.
[27:24] Cormier.
[27:25] Cormier.
[27:26] Cormier.
[27:27] What is it?
[27:28] Oh, they understood.
[27:29] The thing I have to keep them from doing is to write it as if the Soviets had completely moved to our position.
[27:37] No, that's right.
[27:37] Mr. O'Brien, that much?
[27:41] Yeah.
[27:42] And...
[27:42] I think putting this, if we succeed... That's beautiful.
[27:44] ...in this joint statement issued today by the two governments, may he remember.
[27:48] rather than will be.
[27:58] 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.
[28:13] I wonder whether we couldn't release the whole statement.
[28:14] We have already.
[28:14] It's beautiful.
[28:15] I thought the leaders of the United States and the leaders of the United States and the leaders of the United States