On October 28, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, unknown person(s), Henry A. Kissinger, and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:47 pm to 1:07 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 605-011 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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
You're coming, aren't you?
Great, thank you.
Is there any warm tone?
Well, yes, very.
Well, the president, I think you might say, the president.
What do you think?
I have to say that the President of the People's Republic of America is very, very personal.
And it's because of the practice of change that the present world hears us.
And I don't want to deal with any of the others in each other.
the life of our discussions, that we, that the discussions today were on, were the bilateral discussions, were the Secretary of State's group, the discussions we had around the international world affairs, the consolidation of the Middle East,
Very far-right.
The chief of course says every single decision is not good.
Both sides of the impact have to stand together.
Yaga, Sadat, the Middle East, and of course the British.
The President next to the citizen.
The fact that he is one of the last in the world over two years.
The fact that he has his policy in mind, which I was in charge of.
He would say that he is, despite the fact that he represents a
I've always had respect for her.
We have respect.
But I thought as I was sitting there, I mean, your ability to handle these meetings, that's one of the things that really has to be.
has to be written.
We've got our points across.
Well, but the subtle way you do it and the fact that you always, you know, he hops around from subject to subject, that you're on top of all of these subjects is not an easy... Oh, I'm supposed to be.
But anyway, we've got it all.
All set up for his interview.
Dave was so insistent on this that I came and said it will mean that the president isn't saying goodbye to our president.
So, and that'll be fine.
And maybe we won't change it.
I just said it's a problem.
Well, we've got it.
We've got everything.
Robert said that he's got a very good reception of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Oh, excellent.
He did.
He did.
So I, yeah, that gave me the feel very, very healthy.
He said, despite the, you know, OUS and everything, everybody thought it was going to be all, you know, there could be so forth.
But turns out it's not.
It's watering off that.
That's right.
Very fast.
I don't think it's a big issue.
Well, it is among, you know, you talk to a Reagan, it's the biggest guy in his life.
On the other hand, he doesn't talk deeply about it.
It's a few people, Mr. President, and people who've never really supported you when you needed them.
Reagan.
Reagan.
But Reagan isn't going to attack you either.
I don't believe you.
I don't believe you.
No, the far right has never supported me to your damn rights.
What I mean is, I've come to Buckley at least three or four times and organized your conservatives to attack the liberals.
That they won't do.
They'll attack you when you stray off the line.
I don't stray much.
But they don't defend you.
We ordered M.G.
to go to the chapel.
Yeah.
To go out on guns, right?
There's no other man who would have done it.
Thank you very much.
They have crazy guns out there carrying their signs.
And the Democrats would never have done it, and very few people would have done it.
But I think we've done it.
And I think... You know, Bill, honestly, too, he's got the...
He's got his belly full of the United Nations.
It was good that he went out there and took a bloody nose.
And because now he says, you know, we've got to reorganize that damn United Nations.
He said, this is... We were waiting for you.
He said, no.
He says, I...
which is this, it's become, the organization, I think you used the term, it's become a joke.
Yes, yes.
Now, he had a very good reception, and this morning on the Today Show, they showed the statements that Cooper and Church made endorsing your foreign policy.
And I must say, this group of senators this morning, the opponent that I saw was, after all, was a part of the election.
There was no real steam in the opponent.
I didn't talk about Peking.
I talked about the amendments to the foreign aid.
No, no, but what I... That is my point, though.
You can go and talk about it.
I'm dead, but you live in Peking.
And that is... We have to...
because it was all pointed out yesterday.
Well, this Paul said it today.
I think we ought to get this out.
He said the world has changed a great deal since we met a year ago.
That's the thing that excites me.
He knows the world has changed.
And I said, well, we talked about some of these things.
But he said it with great respect.
There's no question.
He knows damn well that we changed the world.
No question.
It may not be any change.
It may not be for the better.
But... Well, it was inevitable, for one thing.
The art of statesmanship is to take the inevitable and to use it for constructive ends.
We were going to lose in the UN at the latest next year if you had never made a move to Peking.
And this way you've given it a positive orientation.
The Chinese have asked to see Walters on Saturday, so I suspect they're going to tell us what they're going to do about the U.S.
There can be no other subject.
But we've discussed everything else.
I hope Joe Elias decides to come over and pick up the damage.
No question.
He won't do that.
He will not do that.
Well, I can't imagine.
They do not do...
I would really be amazed if they did that.
What they may do is to send their ambassadors from Canada down to pick up the seed.
You know, that vote, even if it wasn't going to be for us, it was a bigger deal for the Russians.
Oh, they're going to cause a lot more trouble.
The Russians aren't going to like it when they have those damn Chinese around there.
That's going to be fun.
It'd be better if they didn't pick up the seed, but...
And I wouldn't bet yet that they will.
They may say they'll wait until Taiwan is expelled from all subsidiary organizations.
But given that son-of-a-bitch tan, he may rush that through.
You know, he had to get a cable off last night saying if they got there by Sunday, they could take over the presidency of the Security Council next month.
Oh, son of a bitch.
You know, that's just a needless irritation.
I'm glad.
Me too.
Good.
I'm bored.
Good.
We've been dating last year.
So we'll see how it goes.
But the Foreign Relations Committee was very favorable to Rogers yesterday.
And that's why I said this morning, I think in foreign policy, we've got things going our way now.
Nobody, I mean, well, Chicago was two weeks ago, but the reaction.
Well, the only thing we've had, which was a whole big story, is the defeat, so-called, in the United Nations.
But that may turn out all right, too, due to the fact, strangely, that it gave us an opportunity to say something.
Well, it was, uh, but it was an unavoidable defeat.
You know, defeat is something that you can't avoid, you know.
Okay.
There was something we could have done about it.
At least listen to me, Moran.
You can talk to me.
You're the man in the gun case.
That's going to be enough.
The one thing that we, that you might consider getting across to people in the next meeting is that all of this stuff about the political settlement, we all know that in fact we support it, but the Indians are making political demands which they know can be met only by the break-up of Pakistan, and they make demands.
It's one thing to say that Mujahid shouldn't be killed.
It's another to demand that he be the political negotiator.
Well, the other man picked up a new shoe ring.
Okay.
And that's one of the problems.
Well, he's got one impression.
We aren't winning too much in the assignment.
Oh, take that right back to Mrs. Gondy.
That's right.
Where I said, too, that we didn't get any dollars a year.
Just forget it.
They go to war.
Oh, you were very tough.
I'm trying to, too.
I think it's good to lay down the channels, man.
I'd be fine.
That's good.
That's a good plan.
Don't you think so?
Always.
Oh, no, you made it, but you laid it in very hard.
No pressure about that.
I think that's one of the reasons the Indians won't move to war.
They're petrified because of the Chinese going in there.
They know damn well the Russians aren't going to give up all their war on India.
Show them that.
It's not going to get this.
They don't have anything.
It doesn't matter how much equipment they have.
They don't have anyone else.
All right.
See you tonight.
Bye.
Well, we have to, before everything is off, we have to sleep, too.
Saturday, we have a movie.
Meet Tito in the morning?
Can he stay and come back Monday night?
You know, I might do that and then go again next week.
Next week you're so tied up.
That's when I'm free.
Oh, is it?
It's the next week you see that I'm free.
I'm free except for the preparation for that.
New York-Chicago.
Oh.
New York-Chicago's on Tuesday.
But I have nothing.
Next weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, I go over.
It truly is going to come back with the money.
It seems to me that for Friday afternoon and evening and all day Saturday and Sunday and spend most of the money and come back like a shark or something.
Why don't you find out the moment?
Listen to your people.
You want to find out?
Okay, I'll let you know when I catch her.