Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 502-014
Date: Thursday, May 20, 1971 at 1:45 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.; Dart, Justin W.; Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Scali, John A.; Kissinger, Henry A.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/502-014

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] He's going to at 2 o'clock.
[0:14] He's going to be with Severide, Smith, and Chancellor.
[0:16] He did the major backgrounder at 1245.
[0:19] The major one.
[0:20] The big one.
[0:20] He opened all.
[0:20] That's completed.
[0:23] 2 o'clock, you've got Severide, Smith, and Chancellor, Cal, Berlariani, and Gill, because of the...
[0:29] Right.
[0:29] on the air tonight.
[0:31] Then at 4 o'clock, he does Franco, Roberts, the AP and the UPI diplomatic guys, William S. White, Drummond.
[0:43] Do that together?
[0:43] Yeah, do them all together.
[0:44] Mix them all into a group of about 20.
[0:46] You know, those who will be writing follow-up columns and so forth.
[0:49] That is at 4 o'clock.
[0:53] He's not going to say how long.
[0:55] He's due to do them at 2 o'clock, sir.
[1:00] The one over here went very well.
[1:09] Seth was there and dived in a few places, and we covered basically the same ground.
[1:16] Oh, it's hit with great impact.
[1:18] Yes, sir.
[1:20] Yes, sir.
[1:20] Great impact.
[1:23] You know, they're kind of wandering around like, oh,
[1:28] It really happened, didn't it?
[1:31] And you can sense by their mood.
[1:33] They're up.
[1:35] They're up.
[1:36] They always are.
[1:49] I hear you've been sick, and I guess I'll tell you that I'm glad your operation was successful, and, uh, to wish you well, and tell you how much we're glad we already had it ready.
[2:00] Your daughter, Jane, is working at Buck Crow.
[2:09] Oh, well, good.
[2:10] That makes your place all the better, or the other way?
[2:15] Yeah, right.
[2:16] Well, I'll tell you, after all the money you've raised, it isn't that you deserve a little rest, so play a lot of golf.
[2:23] When it gets better, we'll be ready for a bigger battle next year.
[2:26] Fair enough.
[2:33] Okay, goodbye.
[2:43] Let me say, I've got a couple things for you.
[3:02] I've been thinking about the...
[3:03] I want to tell you, I noted you started the applause this morning.
[3:10] You're more observant than I am.
[3:12] Don was looking to see if I had started it or was joining with him in starting it.
[3:17] I said, no, I wouldn't want to get caught leading it.
[3:19] Part of how people are embarrassed to start it.
[3:21] But they wanted to.
[3:22] They really did.
[3:25] They felt good about it.
[3:27] You could feel it.
[3:28] Many of them, I don't think, will realize, because it's a terribly complicated thing, how important this is.
[3:40] I think some did, though.
[3:41] I did.
[3:41] I think Hattie Smith there was good.
[3:44] and uh i think you gave it the importance the television came off very well the analysis i think helped it because people were kind of thinking well goodness from that you know it's such a good statement but i think that was interesting dan seymour's here for some other meeting boy he was
[4:06] He came roaring in the office.
[4:09] He says, Jesus Christ.
[4:10] He was just bouncing off the walls.
[4:13] He had the statement there, and he said, this is really, a couple more like that, if you can, or one more like that, if you've got it made.
[4:22] The point is, he saw it instantly.
[4:23] He remembered, and I'd forgotten, that when he was in here talking with you a couple years ago, when you first came in, you were talking about the key to this whole thing was how we set things with the Russians.
[4:35] And he said, obviously, you've been working at it,
[4:37] Thank God.
[4:40] The least you can start.
[4:41] The hard thing is to know how important to treat.
[4:44] My staff said, what's it mean?
[4:46] And I said, it's damn important.
[4:50] That's right.
[4:50] You've got to think about it.
[4:51] And yet you couldn't.
[4:52] I mean, you're in the Soviet Union.
[4:55] That's what I said.
[4:56] Imagine, both cut off at the same minute.
[4:58] But even going to the bathroom.
[5:00] That's what you're saying, 12 noon.
[5:02] I've been thinking about your situation, and I think I determined what you ought to do.
[5:16] We haven't done anything.
[5:16] Lincoln has really given me that you would come on to the NFC and do operational responsibilities.
[5:31] A little tempest in a teapot.
[5:38] The Russians made their own translation.
[5:39] It isn't exactly like ours.
[5:42] And I've just got the freedom on the phone and said if you want to play games with us, you go.
[5:47] They put in the word treaty rather than agreement.
[5:51] Well, so.
[5:53] Oh, they better know that.
[5:55] I know they better know about it.
[5:57] So what the Russians are doing this afternoon is to pre-initiate the issue of press release, authenticating our text, the text you read, saying that that is the authentic text.
[6:08] I just don't want to have to spend our time in the briefings explaining why we weren't taken to the cleaners and the Russians have a different text from ours.
[6:18] And so... We're all out of this painting.
[6:26] Well, that's the thing I wanted to talk about now, about you and .
[6:53] Yes, sir.
[6:53] Thank you.
[6:53] Well, .
[6:58] They issued their own text, so they issued that public.
[7:04] And the word treaty is substitute for agreement.
[7:14] Well, that does have .
[7:14] Well, I called the briefing, and Travis came.
[7:18] And then there is an AP report from Moscow saying there'll be a two-stage procedure, first an ABM agreement,
[7:27] But for that we have the letter, I mean.
[7:34] We only have the letter.
[7:35] We've got the...
[7:37] The first day when you come and tell her this, to humiliate you.
[7:42] Mansfield, you know about it, made a very strong statement.
[7:48] By when they said two-stage...
[7:54] They want...
[7:55] I think that when you get into one stage, two stage, and all that sort of thing...
[8:05] They want to prove to their own...
[8:12] This was on the domestic radio in Moscow.
[8:18] They want to prove that.
[8:18] Yeah, but when they say two stage, one stage, this is all a question of...
[8:20] If you could buzz off... Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[8:21] Whether you wanted to...
[8:25] Now, you know, Adams took a picture of the release day yesterday.
[8:46] That's what it means.
[8:46] We have to pay for it.
[8:47] It shows on the stage.
[8:47] It shows all those...
[8:47] I think it's a good...
[8:48] Yes.
[8:48] Fine.
[8:48] You just put the pictures up for you to use in the meetings.
[8:49] Okay.
[8:50] Okay.
[8:50] Bye.
[8:56] And that's obviously .
[9:10] He said he would have a press conference.
[9:13] No, he'll issue a press release at the end of the day confirming the authenticity of our text.
[9:21] He'll just say this is the official text and release how.
[9:22] So we're reading the general press very well.
[9:24] How do you feel about it?
[9:25] I think it went very well.
[9:27] Of course, it was a cinch.
[9:30] It's so rare that there's now they're nitpicking a statement, which is basically what they really want.
[9:39] They're going through the motions of nitpicking it, but they're very eager for me to reassure them it's not like Cambodia or Vietnam.
[9:47] I'm sure they can nitpick it.
[9:51] Everybody else nitpicks it, of course.
[9:52] Christ, if they realize how long it took to get this far, it's going to be a... We were smart to play it exactly as we did.
[10:04] We didn't overstate the damn thing.
[10:05] We said about the right thing.
[10:09] And I think we've got help.
[10:13] I'm just...
[10:13] If they screw it up, I just won't let Rush come to the next sermon meeting.
[10:16] I'll just tell them there's no trusting them, that this channel is useless.
[10:23] But they won't screw it up.
[10:29] Right now, they want a deal.
[10:33] No question.
[10:33] So do we.
[10:34] No.
[10:35] Where did that do?
[10:36] Oh, he said, good God.
[10:36] Oh, yes.
[10:37] He said, of course.
[10:37] Talk to Reagan.
[10:38] He said, great.
[10:40] I have a thought.
[10:46] Just, I think, something to consider.
[10:48] It's so excessive eagerness.
[10:49] I really do.
[10:52] I was thinking it might help you in your hours and so forth as well.
[11:02] No, I really, let's do it at the next announcement we can make.
[11:05] But he mustn't think he's got us with.
[11:11] Oh, right.
[11:16] That's why it's pretty good to put out this leader's thing and so forth.
[11:18] Mansfield made a good statement today.
[11:19] Very strong.
[11:19] The person is concerned whether they use
[11:20] He said, we didn't have to do any explaining.
[11:31] I called Duprin and I went over it with him word for word tomorrow and yesterday at noon.
[11:37] I called him again at four to say, now be damn sure there's no mix-up.
[11:42] And, uh, it's okay.
[11:47] It's all right.
[11:48] You're going to be on television tonight.
[11:50] I mean, the average person, a different agreement, 3D, all they know is something could happen.
[12:02] Yeah, and if they were to join the U.S., it was always a two-stage thing there.
[12:05] Well, no, that's the AP interpretation of the agreement.
[12:09] From Moscow.
[12:10] Yeah, from Moscow.
[12:15] Well, this is the apartment.
[12:16] At that time, we will read to the other, you know what I mean?
[12:33] It's in there like a scenario, isn't it?
[12:34] Oh, yeah.
[12:35] In the letter of Kosygin, it says it will be discussed before the thing is concluded.
[12:42] Discussed.
[12:42] In this case, actually, discussed helps us.
[12:45] Because a lot of the press are asking, are you going to discuss it consecutively or simultaneously?
[12:59] I've just said flatly, we'll discuss it simultaneously.
[13:01] How was that?
[13:01] Beyond my trust center was an initiative by the press, but beyond the details, there was no issue at all about my role.
[13:06] Nobody even asked that I had anything to do with it.
[13:13] I don't want Jerry to hog all the credit.
[13:23] They asked him whether he brought it back from Vienna, and he certainly didn't deny it.
[13:33] Yeah.
[13:33] Push that a little harder.
[13:37] He deserves next to nothing, almost everything, the whole concept of it, we ran down his throat.
[13:44] The whole design of the negotiation, every option we developed over his dead body.
[13:49] The only thing he deserves credit for is that he...
[13:53] Took his orders.
[13:56] Took his orders.
[13:59] Sir, you say he really brought it back to him.
[14:04] I'd rather go out and discuss that.
[14:04] Maybe that's what he said rather than...
[14:06] Oh, yeah, no.
[14:16] No, please.
[14:17] Can I put it in this way?
[14:22] Well, Jerry, credit is for everybody, but the primary credit must go to the president.
[14:24] Can I call him that number to understand?
[14:25] He says that.
[14:28] Do you read?
[14:29] He can't say anything against it now.
[14:30] Well, if he put credit, he thought he had to throw it back.
[14:32] from Vienna, and he wanted to give you only the credit of having said no all along.
[14:44] Okay.
[14:44] I'll report to you after this meeting.
[14:45] This is the TV cast.
[14:46] How long does it go?
[14:47] Forty-five minutes.