Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 517-010
Date: Friday, June 11, 1971 at 12:23 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Zerilli-Marimo, Guido; Butterfield, Alexander P.; Atkins, Oliver F. ("Ollie"); Sanchez, Manolo
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/517-010

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:06] Sit down here.
[0:29] Thank you very much.
[0:48] Thank you.
[0:53] Well, I see, good.
[1:00] Yes, I, you know, particularly, you're asking you to sing one moment, and I appreciate that you mentioned it to be there.
[1:11] Good morning, sir.
[1:12] Good morning, sir.
[1:13] I'd like to say congratulations.
[1:14] Sure, of course.
[1:14] Anything you want.
[1:15] Sure.
[1:19] It's something that I, being inspired by my permanent friendship with America and my devotion to you, I must take out of my chest and tell you.
[1:35] Since a long time, but especially this moment, Italy is crossing a delicate moment.
[1:41] There is nothing tragic, but I would say that it should be an item of not of great worry, but of serious concern.
[1:56] And if you allow me to tell you this, I hope you won't approach me.
[2:02] We had a job in Italy.
[2:05] We don't have
[2:08] You had a wonderful presentation.
[2:29] I'm sure he's a man of a high integrity and quite a good officer of the career, but it's not what you should be in Italianism.
[2:46] He's a stronger man.
[2:49] To be a stronger man, you need a man who has more energy, who has more ability to make sense, who is more compassionate, and who is...
[2:59] is able to say things thoroughly and not without the fear of intruding.
[3:12] This is the present version.
[3:13] You know, on the other hand, unfortunately, President Solda has said that he is out of state of mind.
[3:18] We have not been very lucky in the last few years of international membership.
[3:22] You know the comment of a poor-assist designer who now has died.
[3:33] There was all the mistakes about the central-sinister, central-left and so on, eh?
[3:38] Then we have had my dear friend Garton Rackley, who is a wonderful man, but rather on the confessor side.
[3:42] He's a very good better man on the economic side, if you like.
[3:47] But with a poor enthusiasm, he had this special thing which was biologically innate in his character.
[3:52] There was a man that the weapon was in the difficulty of the problem and he immediately saw the difficult side.
[4:01] Now, you know better than I do that when you want to win, in fact, he put it in his life and so delivered.
[4:10] But the gentleman, he was absolutely, how do you say, I mean, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
[4:16] This man is an old man, but not old by age.
[4:21] He is old by spirit.
[4:24] He has lost two sons.
[4:26] He is very sad of the times.
[4:30] He is very intellectual.
[4:31] He has no contacts.
[4:33] They do not take the house because they have rights, they have works.
[4:37] I take it to them that when you make the present world a world of their resources, not the possibility of any other.
[4:44] in the reception of something.
[4:46] They don't see anybody.
[4:47] If you're sitting there, sitting there, who knows everybody around?
[4:54] He sees, Mr. Martin, he sees the people from the Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
[4:59] He sees.
[4:59] What is he going to say to them?
[5:01] He may be stupid, but he has no contact.
[5:10] It's that friend of his that people tell him about himself, to investigate, to find out the people, you know, who he's been in contact with when Jimmy Dunn was there.
[5:16] Jimmy Carano.
[5:20] Jimmy Carano was my greatest friend there.
[5:23] I worked with him.
[5:24] Jimmy was my best friend there, because we organized the American-Italian Association.
[5:27] And when I won the election in 48, you know, I was the organizer for the Army Communist Party.
[5:31] For a couple of the parties, I stood in the Congress, just to keep the Congress down with the government.
[5:37] And we had, and I was seeing, I was seeing the error.
[5:40] And this one, it's quite a gentleman, but the other people, he doesn't see, he doesn't see the Germans, he doesn't see some of our
[6:07] You know, just to discuss the official matters, just to meet them.
[6:13] But yet, not what we call being ordained.
[6:18] How do you say that?
[6:22] Excuse my English.
[6:24] What we call being ordained.
[6:27] You see, that's it.
[6:32] Quite nice people from an oral point of view.
[6:45] But you see, especially in a country like Italy, which is so pluralistic.
[7:01] He has no possibility to write me down to the actual situation.
[7:11] You know how it is, Mr. President.
[7:14] The other factor, not the other factor.
[7:18] The truth is in the rules.
[7:19] The truth is in the rules.
[7:20] You know, Russia's life is an excluding rule.
[7:24] The Orientals lie as a rule and truth sometimes.
[7:30] In Europe, especially Latin countries,
[7:37] Truth is a truth.
[7:42] There were 30% who lied to the truth, and then we had the 30% that lied, that... And you can only ascertain now, here in India, only by contacting, by checking the one opinion with the other, by giving the information, then I told you the other one, and I said, always be in the, you understand what I'm saying, in the...
[8:02] You know, yes, exclusives, I mean, like, you know, exclusives.
[8:22] Yes, yes.
[8:23] So the lie is the truth, but you may have the truth.
[8:28] When you go to that in the churches, you have a niche.
[8:32] And it's that you have a 40% like the Amor Factor, and you have a 20% more or less like the theoretical, and then you have a 40% of the average, you know.
[8:45] So this means that you must meet as many people as you can.
[8:48] And the change has many themes, has many opinions.
[8:55] It must be in the life of a country like this.
[8:59] And this is what is about.
[9:02] You understand?
[9:02] I hate to tell you this, but also to be considerate.
[9:08] Because nobody in the world will ever understand that the people are sensitive to this.
[9:11] But I think it was my duty, I owe this to you, as an Italian, as a man in Greece, in Italy, and who knows all the situations there.
[9:22] It's very important.
[9:23] So, I don't think that, suppose we should, I know you have some men, I don't know exactly, I don't know them enough, but at least I wasn't subjected to what was happening in Madrid.
[9:32] Let's show him.
[9:38] Yeah, yeah.
[9:39] Oh, you don't trust him, do you?
[9:48] Yes, but he's an equal American.
[9:51] You are saying... No, no, no.
[9:51] You are saying, like, except that the one who is a diplomat, like General Meade, who is the government, the conference, he's a type of man, because... And then, literally, one must be very careful to present somebody who...
[10:02] cannot be immediately accused by the justice system.
[10:10] This is a reactionary, or this is, to be very clear, the police are supposed, the justice system is not, it's not technically the name of the justice system, but supposedly, a man like Cesar, who can question the law, you want the justice system to inform us that Europe is in problem number one, you see, or a man like Cesar needs to counsel in this arm, in this arm and so on and so forth.
[10:28] You see, just let's have this,
[10:29] Because it's a very good point, also, Mr. Judge.
[10:36] I don't, of course, even dream to make a hit.
[10:41] But that's a very good point.
[10:46] Well, I think there's a problem.
[10:49] It's a grave problem.
[10:53] Because in Italy nothing is better than because you have a special situation, you have a government which does not prevent the nation.
[11:04] Because the nation has their own idea and there are many people who vote for the communists, up to 30%, but they are not communists.
[11:14] They don't want communists in Italy.
[11:15] They don't want communists either by immigrants
[11:17] or as a source of compensation, or because, or because they kick the nuts.
[11:23] Because there are all these small, how do you say, industries, or little firms, or in India, or in Tosca,
[11:32] You know what they do?
[11:37] They have, for instance, a smaller firm with their 100 workers or something like that.
[11:46] They don't pay for distribution.
[11:49] They don't pay for labor.
[11:50] They e-cock people without paying them in 10 minutes.
[11:51] And so it is because they keep preventing because they are selfish.
[11:54] So, they want the Congress to have some feeling in this because they know that the Congress is a party.
[11:56] I'm afraid you are conscious by conviction.
[11:57] No, I'm not.
[11:58] Mr. President, I would bet your cycle of claims not more.
[12:00] Not more.
[12:01] And everybody loves America because everybody knows what America has done for Italy.
[12:06] Everybody and people of the same class here in this country.
[12:10] Johnny, you don't think that the Anglo-Americans have that idea?
[12:14] Absolutely not.
[12:16] Because it might be taken as...
[12:18] I know.
[12:20] I get your point.
[12:20] Some people tell us to do that.
[12:23] I get your point.
[12:25] Thank you very much.
[12:41] Thank you very much.
[12:41] Thank you very much.
[12:41] The secret is that we're about to leave here.
[12:50] Don't worry, we'll leave you the secret, and also I'll consider it, so I know there's time for the problems.
[13:00] And we'll take off.
[13:00] I mean, it's certainly important to the free world.
[13:01] We'll take off, you know.
[13:02] I mean, we'll have the arms of that man on her.
[13:03] We'll take off.
[13:03] We'll take off.
[13:04] We'll take off.
[13:04] We'll take off.
[13:05] We'll take off.
[13:05] We'll take off.
[13:05] We'll take off.
[13:06] We'll take off.
[13:06] You know, because we've always said, you know, what's happening in England, that if Congress didn't go to the U.S. and started fighting like a beast on the East Coast, and it was a global threat, that any chance there is also an indignation right now.
[13:24] Well, I think in France it's about the matters, you know what I mean, it's about this problem as well.
[13:27] You know, this is what we do every morning when it goes to the U.S. You know, the first thing we did, the thing we asked for
[13:31] How is the situation in Italy?
[13:39] Because they know that the .
[13:48] And this is the main concern of .
[13:54] Just to show you that Italy, because we are .
[13:58] Absolutely.
[14:02] But you also have an enormous amount of respect for the Latin countries of Latin America.
[14:10] Absolutely.
[14:10] We're all a part of Latin America.
[14:12] Now, what we need really in this world is to have a united Europe, a soft Europe, because otherwise we will be only between America and Russia.
[14:29] We don't want to be a disability.
[14:30] We need to have a plurality of people.
[14:31] And we have Europe, we have...
[14:31] and Japan too.
[14:35] Japan must become tough again as a country.
[14:39] No, we need to find great power.
[14:43] Because the American people cannot.
[14:45] You are making God into a gigantic force for which you apply so much, but of course you cannot pretend that they all over have the policeman, all the world.
[14:55] And of course, we have people who want to have it, but unless we have this plurality of great powers, then one of these might be Europe.
[15:10] Now this entrance of people is the best thing, and unfortunately, they won't delay this process.
[15:14] You know, we must struggle for that.
[15:16] And for that, we must have not the city, Italy, which is intercepted in Amos.
[15:23] Well, I appreciate that.
[15:45] We are so happy to be here today.
[15:46] It's a good night.
[15:46] We have a little appearance we'd like to give you.
[15:47] That's the presidential seal.
[15:48] Oh, here it is.
[15:48] Thank you.
[15:48] Thank you.
[15:48] Thank you.
[15:49] Thank you.
[15:49] Thank you.
[15:49] Thank you.
[15:49] Thank you.
[15:49] Thank you.
[15:54] Thank you.
[16:07] Thank you.
[16:07] Thank you.