Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 597 › Conversation 597-004

Nixon with unidentified visitors in the Oval Office on Henry Kissinger

Wednesday, October 20, 1971 · 12:20 PM–12:30 PM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); [Unknown person(s)]Conversation597-004 on Tape 597 (tape position 02:56:34–03:00:48)StartWednesday, October 20, 1971 at 12:20 PMEndWednesday, October 20, 1971 at 12:30 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 597-004 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and an unknown associate discuss administrative budget reductions and the logistics of upcoming diplomatic outreach. The President emphasizes the necessity of scheduling private, interpreter-only meetings with Chairman Mao Zedong, separate from the broader, formal agenda managed by Henry Kissinger. The conversation concludes with instructions to ensure this requirement for direct, high-level diplomatic contact is communicated to Kissinger immediately.

Audio

part B, 52:28

Download MP3 (part 1) · 170.4 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 89.2 MB

This conversation has not yet been cut into its own clip, so the players above hold the full tape, shared with neighbouring conversations. By the archivists' log it runs from 02:56:34 to 03:00:48 into the tape; their log often drifts a minute or two from the audio, so listen for the subjects in the finding aid.

NARA Description

On October 20, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:20 pm and 12:30 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 597-004 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 597-4

Date: October 20, 1971
Time: Unknown between 12:20 pm and 12:30 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with an unknown person.

     The President's schedule
          -Executive Office Building [EOB]

The unknown person and the President left at 12:30 pm.

Transcript (AI-generated)

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

Timestamps are positions within the full tape; click one to play the tape from there.

One, one, two.
True.
That's the one thing, sir, we're really going to chop.
We're going to chop off the specials and the new services in the ranch.
Let the AP and the UP know.
What do we have?
They may have a lot more of your things.
He's so obsessed with the idea of setting up these jets over there, and everyone can sit in every meeting, and I make rockers off of somebody else's promises, and he wants Roger to keep it with him so that he can sit and be king and get the such and such.
Well, he doesn't really like that.
It's so obvious that Floyd Rogers can see it.
I have gotten to see, though, I have gotten to see Joe and I alone.
I've also gotten to go on some occasions.
Because I've gotten to every other end of the state, and Henry cannot be there.
I understand.
They can have a major meeting and so forth and so on.
But there must be meetings alone without Henry.
There's another reason for that, which I'm sure occurs.
It had nothing to do with Roger.
You know, it is a curse.
I said, here's Henry.
Oh, yeah, sure.
So that's just, yeah, he had a position of being with us.
You'd better get that to Al now, so that I, that I think that's got to get to Henry.
Is Henry there by now?
Yes.
We got communication, by the way.
Okay, bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Our communication is that I, it is important that I have, because we have had it with every other chief of state, that I must have a meeting with both Joe and I and Mao Zedong at least one meeting apart from meetings and other substantive discussions with only interpreters present.
I should have told him, but that must be said to him so that he doesn't set it up and then come back and tell us
Well, I can't arrange that because we've agreed to something else.
There must be, because we have had it with every Mother of Jesus thing, there must be that in addition to the extended, substantive meetings that we will have, substantive, in addition to all of the meetings that we will have, I must have, on some occasion, a meeting that we will follow.
Sure.
That's the best, we'll get more, that's the best one of them all.
What's the mystery on it?
Nobody exactly knows.
I'm not going to say anything, but I do know that it's true.
This will be the mission.

Also recorded on October 20, 1971

  • 282-001 12:30 PM · 4 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:30 pm and 2:23 pm.
  • 282-002 12:30 PM · 22 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:30 pm and 2:23 pm.
  • 282-003 12:30 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:30 pm and 2:23 pm.
  • 282-004 12:30 PM · 27 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:30 pm and 2:23 pm.
  • 282-005 12:30 PM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:30 pm and 2:23 pm.
  • 282-006 12:30 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:30 pm and 2:23 pm.
  • 282-007 12:30 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:30 pm and 2:23 pm.
  • 597-005 12:30 PM · 1 min — unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:30 pm and 11:59 pm.

All 81 conversations from October 20, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 597-004, October 20, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/597-004 (accessed November 12, 2026).