On July 19, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:58 am to 12:08 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 539-007 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.
Yes, sir.
I just want to double-check my wording with you before I put the briefs on the show.
They refinished it, huh?
Yeah.
They, uh, how do you say it?
It was a nightmare.
How the hell they did it?
I didn't notice it was refinished, you mentioned.
Well, what I'm supposed to do is simply send it to the times of the meeting.
I'll say the president and his discussions with the leadership and the cabinet underline the points he made in his announcements.
And for your background, Henry Kiss, did you brief the leaders in much the same way you briefed the press in San Clemente, period?
No more.
And, uh, and Secretary Rogers?
Oh, yes, yes, uh, Secretary Rogers.
He was on the board of policy, on the board of reactions, on the board of nations.
On the board of nations.
And what was that?
And I would say the President declined to speculate.
I think that's a good idea.
You want to all say that?
I think that the President, the speculation about, I think that President Klein's speculation on, he said that this was a meeting between the United States and the United Nations for the purpose of discussing their problems with which they're concerned.
Why any speculation about the effects on any other nations?
On any other matter?
On any other, yeah, on any other, well, speculation on any other matters.
On any other matters.
Is there any such speculation?
Mr. President said the meeting would be between the United States and the United States.
Mr.
He also, I think he could also say, he said he would welcome on a private basis, however, the
So basically, President,
The discussion with the leadership underlined the points you made this week.
The President said the meeting between the United States and China, Robbins and Meech are concerned, declined to speculate on effect on any other matter, and said speculation would be silent.
Yes, yes, they didn't know there were questions about Taiwan, and they, yes, that's not really the point of the meeting.
I can refer to the meetings that he'll be having with those countries immediately concerned with the announcement this week.
In other words, the Secretary will be meeting with them.
SECRETARY POMPEO Yeah, the Secretary will continue his talks.
SECRETARY POMPEO Right.
And what about Vietnam?
I'll probably get that back on the back and say the President said it would just decline all any speculation, whatever, about Vietnam.
So this was a matter in the United States and China, and it would go beyond that.
Okay.
Now, one other thing, Mr. President, that I'm going to be pressed on this morning is the Vice President.
There's a story moving on the wire, which says that he was not, no, that's not moving, but there's a story moving that he was not informed.
I'm going to reply to that.
Absolutely true.
Yeah, but I've been keeping that very flexible.
I've said, I'm going to have a checklist of who has been invited, but I'll assure you the president, vice president's aware of all the, you know, the total foreign policy thing.
But I'm going to say if he was involved in this or not.
No, he was not involved.
No.
Should I say that?
No.
I better just keep it loose.
Yes.
Without saying, you know, he wasn't involved.
The only people involved were Kissinger.
Well, that's not going to be the issue.
They'll comment me that way, but they'll comment me primarily on this Manila statement, where he took on the black leadership role.
Now, the question is, do I no comment it, or do I say the president feels
But making progress is the important thing, and we'll continue to, as the President has done in the past, continue to meet with appropriate leaders in order to do that.
That, to some degree, separates, but in a very mild way.
Right.
It's rather stupid to say the corrective name for the reason in fact that went to hell in Africa.
It's blacks defeating blacks, so they're a different kind of people.
They don't have the legacy of slavery here.
It's blacks defeating blacks with a legacy of slavery.
The unfortunate thing of it is, is that it's right.
The statecraft, the black leadership, has handled themselves irresponsibly.
It's right, but a statement like that in Madrid, Spain, comparing them to African leaders, moves, tends to move that.
Like I said, the president, the president is not confident, but has a lot of confidence in the state in regard to the power of African leaders.
The president, the president, the president, of course, is one of the black leaders, one of the poor countries, and the black leader said that he has respect for both.
to put it that way, with respect to both here and in the foreign policy area to work with those in Africa and in the investment field that we're trying to make progress and solve our problems.
Particularly guys like Abernathy, he's a disaster, a horrible bastard.
Okay.
On the Soviet thing, the guidance I have here from Hank and Kissinger is that the President, I'll just say, there's no platform meeting at this time other than the President's general view on immediate with Soviet leaders has been frequently stated.
He has always been willing and principled on such meeting.
If concrete results should be found somewhere, where it's at, where it's at.
Yeah, where subsidy results or contracting results are good.
Okay, sir.
No, I was going to say, the President's position as far as to what is to be, remains, there is no change in the President's position.
And so what is, well, there's no change in his position.
whenever there's something concrete to consult, both parties agree that there is, to be glad to consider a meeting.
It's a matter of tone, and I'll locate it, I understand.
Also, this Taiwan thing is a matter of tone, too, because I don't want to leave going out, and I assume this is your desire that says that the president today told the leaders that he would move to reassure Taiwan.
Oh, sir.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Right.
Okay.
I didn't get back to you on this because I thought it would be all right, but it worked.
It worked fine because we forced them into a situation where I think it's very much to our advantage.
And by holding that thread over it, I think it helped us some.
But they used the other pictures inside.
I don't know.
Well, I did not check with you, but I lifted.
They called me, and I lifted this for you.
Because of the other thing, which is, well, the bastards have never used a cover since we've been here.
I think
They both use them.
They use them to abuse.
And that they kind of, they are really amused at this thing.
These bastards are having a hell of a time.
But tomorrow, now, our democratic friends, they're going to have a hell of a time.
You see what Vovoste said?
He said, you've got to settle with your mom.
But he said we shouldn't go to China because the whole world should go to the Soviet Union, which
here around all that's been strapped.
Fulbright was squirming this morning.
I thought Mansfield, they did all right, but not all of them is a good game.
Yes, sir.
We had a, it's a good tone that came out of me, good feeling amongst all of them.
We have a, it's a different ball game now, isn't it?
Yes, sir, totally different.
And I feel a little bit cut in this morning because there was discussion about keeping, you know, about the comments.
So every leader who left there feels he knows a little something that he can't, you know, talk about.