Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 601 › Conversation 601-030

Nixon & Rogers on Foreign Aid and United Nations

Monday, October 25, 1971 · 12:20 PM–12:31 PM ET · Oval Office · 9 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Rogers, William P.Conversation601-030 on Tape 601 (tape position 03:33:13–03:42:59)StartMonday, October 25, 1971 at 12:20 PMEndMonday, October 25, 1971 at 12:31 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 601-030 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Secretary of State William P. Rogers discuss the implications of recent international voting, specifically focusing on the lack of alignment between the United States and various foreign nations within multilateral organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank. The pair expresses frustration regarding the lack of U.S. control over international financial institutions and suggests a strategic shift toward rewarding nations that support American interests while potentially withholding aid from those that do not. They conclude by acknowledging the political difficulty of these setbacks, particularly regarding domestic support, and emphasize a need to reevaluate foreign policy priorities to better serve American objectives.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 4 minutes of this recording (about 42% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Oh, yeah.
Oh, my God.
The executive in Mexico.
What do you really understand?
That's the only one I felt confident about.
He was really overwhelmed by me.
Could he influence anybody else, do you think?
Yeah, on that side.
Yeah.
I see things.
Isn't that the one we saw?
Yeah, yeah.
Good, good, good.
Good.
Let me say this, that, uh, and of course, except for the German countries, we have no choice.
But in the future, whenever any action is done, everybody, you know, we have a duty to leave them dead.
Yeah.
That's right.
That's right.
And what the Mexicans here did say is that we feel that we ought to go together and that we both are going to have good relations with the Chinese Communist and with the others.
But the main point is that this would have an enormous effect on support for Mexico, on frankly, surtax.
Put that on the line.
That's one thing that several senators and candidates would like to know what happens.
Throw that bait out there for me.
Let me ask this about that.
So here they are, the Irish are, I can't get over there.
I mean, it's published by the British, and I don't see anything meant for the British, but anyway.
That's all I'll say.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Well, no chance.
And all we do is talk about the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Fund and the Inter-American Fund.
I personally believe myself that we lose enormous advantage there.
I couldn't agree more.
And also, you know, the thing is that the whole, all of the leaders of the committee and all the rest of us don't know the latter.
Well, the reason, that's the internationalists.
They've got that.
It doesn't help the United States.
And it costs us just as much.
And we have no control, believe me, when you see what some of these bastards do, who run these, their independence of all our lives.
Well, how can we reverse it?
I would go right that time for the $1,000.
It's got an economy for it, too.
He gets so goddamn mad at the bank and others, well, various banks, because he says they don't play our game.
He says we ought to find ways.
Of course, he isn't trying.
He isn't.
Of course, he needs an ally because he can help with the bank.
You find ways, I'll support it.
Our computers are both waiting with us now, right?
That's good.
Yeah.
Can they, uh, take off with any of the other ones, I suppose, huh?
Front crew.
We have, uh, an equator that you can't do anything by.
Did you have a fishing van?
and considerations and so forth.
Well, if they don't, then I'm strongly in favor of turning the other way around.
I mean, what the hell is in the third?
What do we care what happens in Ecuador?
What the hell do we care?
What do we care what happens in Bolivia?
You know what I mean?
If they are for it, fine.
Oh, you see, one of the reasons we've done things for Latin America is not only because they're close, but also because
Let's catalog, you should say, and the eyes aren't here, say we're a solid goal with the U.N. Now that you're not a solid goal with the U.N., let's play those that aren't, and help with the rest of them.
Right, right, we've got a fellowship switch.
We've got some soft numbers there.
There are none of theirs that we've worked on at this point.
Yeah, I... That woman about Solange wasn't any good.
Yeah.
She wouldn't go.
You couldn't ask her.
It's a courtesy to go and say anything.
They're out there.
We just called them.
I think Mike was driving an extension.
Ah, that's right.
They have a very good view of the ride.
I understand.
I'll be looking at it.
They didn't even visit the goddamn places they're necessary.
But let me say, there is many true ways about it.
This vote demonstrates the weakness of the multilateral assistance.
And second, it also demonstrates that when they come out of India and they want us to do these nice little things, they hell with us.
This is not meant for us.
This is not meant for us.
And that's the way they're treated by the other side, so we'll treat it that way.
Absolutely.
I think if we lose, it just doesn't make any sense, probably, for me to get into it.
It's just one of those damn things.
It ends up that the right wing will have its problems with this.
We know that.
We've made a good fight with
But on the other hand, it was built, I didn't give it enough time as if it probably was going to be lost.
It was meant to wait a year.
We were losing all the time.
Okay, good luck.

NARA Description

On October 25, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:20 pm to 12:31 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 601-030 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 601-30

Date: October 25, 1971
Time: 12:20 pm - 12:31 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President talked with William P. Rogers.

[See Conversation No. 12-111; seven items have been withdrawn from the conversation]

Also recorded on October 25, 1971

  • 012-108 12:10 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:10 pm and 12:15 pm.
  • 601-024 12:10 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:10 pm and 12:15 pm.
  • 012-109 12:15 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and unknown person(s) talked on the telephone from 12:15 pm to 12:17 pm.
  • 601-028 12:15 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:15 pm to 12:17 pm.
  • 012-110 12:17 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:17 pm and 12:20 pm.
  • 601-029 12:17 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:17 pm and 12:20 pm.
  • 012-111 12:20 PM · 11 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers talked on the telephone from 12:20 pm to 12:31 pm.
  • 601-027 12:25 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at 12:25 pm.

All 50 conversations from October 25, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 601-030, October 25, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/601-030 (accessed October 12, 2026).