Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 590 › Conversation 590-010

Nixon & Haldeman on China and Taiwan

Wednesday, October 13, 1971 · 12:32 PM–1:15 PM ET · Oval Office · 9 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); White House operatorConversation590-010 on Tape 590 (tape position 03:55:43–04:05:21)StartWednesday, October 13, 1971 at 12:32 PMEndWednesday, October 13, 1971 at 1:15 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 590-010 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H. R. Haldeman discussed logistics for the upcoming presidential visit to the People's Republic of China, specifically focusing on itinerary length and the potential removal of extra city stops to streamline Secret Service and communications requirements. The two also addressed strategy regarding the United Nations vote on Taiwan, aiming to manage congressional pressure while maintaining the administration's foreign policy objectives. Additionally, they touched upon minor administrative matters, including the President's potential attendance at Dean Acheson’s funeral and communication strategies for ambassadors.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 3 minutes of this recording (about 32% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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We're trying.
How many of you have tried the presence of a light to attend?
And any of you?
Would it be possible if the service could be in a letter rather than two?
It is, we're trying to find one.
We might have to get it there instead of that.
Well, I'll be worried if she doesn't.
I mean, I haven't heard from her.
She was supposed to come to Denmark and learn all the science of some of these new countries.
Did you own that Citizens' Committee or not?
I didn't own any of that Citizens' Committee.
I had a couple of them.
Well, I had Nicole Lewis.
which they are, they just expect you to be.
They really don't, but I think maybe with this one it's not a bad thing to do anyway.
Cutting out the stop in a third city also reduces, by a very substantial amount, some of the, it reduces Secret Service, it reduces WACA, you know, that kind of stuff too.
It may be that I don't have many stops within the months that we can, which, can that reduce it more?
Yeah, that would reduce it some more.
But if the other stop is not an overnight stop, that isn't too much of a problem.
That's what it should be, I think, is just fly out in Peking.
But you could do that and instead stay in Peking and visit the Forbidden Palace or the Great Wall or something like that.
See, the Great Wall is down here an all-day trip.
I don't think you want to do that.
Because you have to be done to drive.
It's a four hour drive.
No, I don't do that.
I don't want a sightseeing.
I don't think I should go there for sightseeing.
Let's face it, it's true.
So I may not get up to.
I'll have every choose of time.
If I'm going to be born four days, I'm sure I'm not going to make it a trip anyway.
I can't justify it.
Well, by not spending the night in another city, you get out of a dead end, though.
Provincial leaders banquet time.
Alex is working it back to whoever talked to him to begin with, because we had an original contact with him.
I think he'd probably just assume that would count at all times.
that he won't be able to get around shit.
That's another thing.
You'll hear it directly from me.
Now, I was just so worried.
She said, apparently, on the back of the call, we won't put it out.
We should never put out a call, you know.
But she'll tell everybody.
Take it out.
That's another advantage of doing that is it has some visibility.
You know, and that raises the question, you know, people say, well, why did you, you know, where did he come from or something?
Well, the president sent him.
They've got some of those guys that they've used for this.
There are two or three of them that are very good property estimates.
Yeah.
It was a quiet day.
There was a very driving day in a sense because of the high tension.
They were purring to the press.
A lot of them got out there and wham it out there at the meeting.
They wham it out to some stuff they were doing yesterday.
And down to the Congress and back to the...
I didn't know where I was going.
Wells?
or a letter to ambassadors, maybe by, you know, is that important?
I remember I mentioned those four points being made, and I wonder if you could get that some way, because I believe in you.
I mean, I think it's good, but I just don't think it's as important as it would have been if you'd gone on that tour.
All right.
And, uh...
The thing to do the most is to frighten the damn human.
In fact, just to be sure that the Congress is calling on us.
There's a lot of congressional guys are doing that.
There's a lot of us.
The only thing we can do is to keep them in this one more year.
There's just a lot of heat we don't need to take if we can avoid it this year.
If they throw them out next November, that's fine.
From what he said after his first trip, the Chinese understood that.
Couldn't care less whether they got in this year or not.
That's what we did today.
We're prepared to leave.
I didn't realize that they don't have any of that call to stay.
I'm trying to get them to listen.
I don't know how all they really get around.
Those get out and
I should swear.
Good ways.
We push some of them on our way carefully, but some of them we just better if we don't.
the Bradford Sons of the King's Tribune, please.

NARA Description

On October 13, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:32 pm and 1:15 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 590-010 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 590-10

Date: October 13, 1971
Time: Unknown between 12:32 pm and 1:15 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman

     Dean G. Acheson’s funeral
          -The President’s possible attendance

     United Nations [UN] vote on Taiwan
          -US actions
          -Citizens Committee
                -Henry A. Kissinger's schedule
                -Hobart D. Lewis

     The President's trip to People's Republic of China [PRC]
          -Length of trip
               -Number of cities to visit
          -Secret Service
          -White House Communications Agency [WHCA]
          -Possible overnight trip
               -Effect
          -Peking
               -Forbidden City, Great Wall
          -Number of cities to visit
               -Provincial City
               -Alexander P. Butterfield
                -Kissinger
                     -Haldeman
                     -Dwight L. Chapin

     Funeral of Dean G. Acheson
          -Military aide
     The President's schedule
          -Announcement of Moscow visit, October 12, 1971
          -Donald H. Rumsfeld
               -George P. Shultz

     William P. Rogers
          -Possible letter to ambassadors
                -Contents

     Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon's schedule
          -African trip

     US foreign policy
          -UN
               -Taiwan
                     -US strategy
                     -Congressional funds cut off
                     -Administration objective
               -Kissinger's conversation with PRC

     The President's telephone call to Kenneth Dyer
          -Charles G. (“Bebe”) Rebozo
          -Publicity

The President talked with White House operator at an unknown time between 12:45 pm and 1:09
pm.

[Conversation No. 590-10A]

[See Conversation No. 11-83]

[End of telephone conversation]

Haldeman left at an unknown time before 1:15 pm.

Also recorded on October 13, 1971

  • 590-005 12:14 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:14 pm and 12:16 pm.
  • 590-006 12:16 PM · 15 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John H. Buchanan, Jr., Philip M. Crane, Charles R. Jonas, William J. Scherle, Floyd D. Spence, Daniel J. Flood, John J. Ryan, Robert L. F. Sikes, Joe D. Waggonner, Jr., Clement J. Zablocki, William E. Timmons, Richard K. Cook, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:16 pm to 12:31 pm.
  • 590-007 12:31 PM · 12 min — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Kenneth Dyer, and Mrs. Dean G. Acheson met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:31 pm and 1:15 pm.
  • 590-008 12:32 PM · 23 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:32 pm and 1:15 pm.
  • 590-009 12:32 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:32 pm and 1:15 pm.
  • 011-081 12:37 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Kenneth Dyer talked on the telephone from 12:37 pm to 12:38 pm.
  • 011-082 12:41 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Mrs. Dean G. Acheson talked on the telephone from 12:41 pm to 12:45 pm.
  • 011-083 12:45 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:45 pm and 1:09 pm.

All 46 conversations from October 13, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 590-010, October 13, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/590-010 (accessed September 28, 2026).