Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 602 › Conversation 602-005

Nixon, Ziegler & Haig on Taiwan and United Nations

Tuesday, October 26, 1971 · 11:24 AM–11:29 AM ET · Oval Office · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.; Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Conversation602-005 on Tape 602 (tape position 01:51:51–01:58:53)StartTuesday, October 26, 1971 at 11:24 AMEndTuesday, October 26, 1971 at 11:29 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 602-005 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon, Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler, and Alexander Haig coordinate the administration's public relations strategy regarding the upcoming United Nations vote on the status of Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. Nixon instructs Ziegler to defer all media inquiries to Secretary of State William Rogers to ensure a unified message and explicitly forbids the disclosure of his personal disappointment regarding the UN situation. Additionally, the President expresses frustration with the press and demands a strict policy to stop the use of background briefings, insisting that all future official statements be made on the record.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 15% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Before I go out, I just wanted to double check with you personally.
I talked to Hague and our conference secretary.
The main plan for now is that I bounce everything to the secretary who will state the U.S. position on the Chinese thing at 1230.
I'll be asked, of course, you know, what your reaction is and so forth.
And I'm just not going to give a reaction according to the plan.
I'm going to bounce that to Rogers.
by simply saying that the Secretary has been in close touch with the U.S. Secretary of Health.
The statement regarding action will come from the Secretary today.
That's where I stand right now.
After discussions with him, and yes, he was in contact with the Secretary last night, and is writing, and the Secretary will look.
taking all questions.
Yeah, the secretary will be expressing the views of the administration.
The views of the administration, the president has talked to them.
And then they press on what your attitude is on the stops.
Well, I was, no, you can say I was, well, the president actually was disappointed.
I don't see what the hell.
Well, I have to say now, you can't just
Uh, Al, you guys can't act.
He's not to say that I'm disappointed.
He just can't say, well, Secretary's in the same line of position.
There's some big objection to that.
And everybody else is disappointed in our coalition.
Well, that's what Rogers was gonna say.
Oh, Rogers was gonna say that.
Okay.
All right.
I'm afraid we don't talk Rogers.
So that's what Rogers said.
I just wanted to...
I think he made sense.
Uh...
Uh...
Otherwise, he...
I understand.
We always are commenting on everything the White House does.
The White House says that, and it's definitely not decided.
After that, they're reading the news summary on the back runners, and we've been killed all the back runners, so no durable friends out there that they ever can get anymore.
Oh, you mean on the back runners?
Yeah, they are.
I intended to... 19 out of 25 of them said they didn't like them, so...
I intended not to fight those who didn't express themselves.
Uh, there just aren't going to be any more.
We've got to get on the record.
Screw these bastards.
Okay, I think that's enough.
I just want to say that the Secretary is having a conference.
The President was talking with the Secretary.
I'm going to refer all questions on that to the Secretary.
What's going on?
I'm going to refer that to the Secretary.
But now I'm going to make it very clear throughout the White House that this is our position.
that no one else should be saying anything about this.
We're going to take a firm stand out there today.
Absolutely.
And I don't think these gays around here are supposed to talk about anything.
I don't think they're supposed to talk.
Absolutely.

NARA Description

On October 26, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:24 am to 11:29 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 602-005 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 602-5

Date: October 26, 1971
Time: 11:24 am - 11:29 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler.

     Schedule for press briefings
          -Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
          -William P. Rogers
                -People's Republic of China [PRC]
          -Ziegler's schedule
                -Haig

The President talked with Haig at an unknown time between 11:24 am and 11:29 am.

[Conversation No. 602-5A]

     Ziegler's forthcoming press briefing
          -The President's feelings about the United Nations [UN] Taiwan vote
           -Rogers

[End of telephone conversation]

     Administration's relationship with press
         -Rogers
         -Backgrounders
               -Ziegler's plans
         -Administration position on Taiwan

Ziegler left at 11:29 am.

Also recorded on October 26, 1971

  • 602-002 11:09 AM · 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 11:09 am and 11:13 am.
  • 602-003 11:09 AM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:09 am and 11:13 am.
  • 013-008 11:13 AM · 12 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald W. Reagan talked on the telephone from 11:13 am to 11:25 am.
  • 602-004 11:13 AM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald W. Reagan met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:13 am to 11:25 am.
  • 013-009 11:25 AM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:25 am and 11:37 am.
  • 602-006 11:35 AM · 42 min — Alexander P. Butterfield, Wallace F. Bennett, George P. Shultz, Clark MacGregor, John D. Ehrlichman, President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, unknown person(s), and Marjorie P. Acker met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:35 am to 12:18 pm.
  • 013-010 11:37 AM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers talked on the telephone from 11:37 am to 11:42 am.
  • 013-011 11:42 AM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:42 am and 1:41 pm.

All 44 conversations from October 26, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 602-005, October 26, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/602-005 (accessed October 12, 2026).