On October 29, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:36 am to 10:45 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 607-007 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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
Mm.
Hello.
I get it.
I get it.
Plus revenue.
That's shit.
Is that all right?
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
Gino, of course, he's a little genuinely, but he did not imitate that much.
He said it did not go well.
Very interesting.
Showed you how scary it is.
Well, let's be very honest and sideline to that.
After the dinner last night, I had the, I had him, I thought we talked to him.
Now the interpreter, you know, the very distinguished man interpreter, he had white hair, and he was with him, so I think he was trying to do double talk.
But the message came through very, very clear.
He said, he said, you know, I only, I know I only have a few moments.
Actually, I spent all the time in the backyard with him, actually, about the last three or four months when I was out there.
He said, a few moments, but he said, I want to tell you that
We in Yugoslavia may face some very, very problems.
He says President Jito was a very old man.
And he got when he goes, I mean, he retires, and then, he said then, he said he may be in front of, with the attention of some of our neighbors who capitalize on that.
He said, he said, but I would strongly hope is that as far as U.S. policy, referring to my close-knit independence,
of our U.S. policy is that we would be aware of this, and I said, well, let me just say one thing.
First, you could be sure that we will never threaten your independence, and so forth.
And second, that we will use our influence to see that others have arrived on this way,
He used the word hands-off.
He responded, I said, we're sure our hands will always belong to the Slavic head.
We lose our influence, but others keep their hands off.
He said, you've got the message.
That's what he said.
He said, we're going to tell the men.
And, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Foreign Minister, when I met him, I listened to him, and he told me he didn't speak any English to me.
That's what the interpreter was there, so he probably wasn't as frank with me, but I could tell that what he was trying to tell me, and now I see what the picture, what he was trying to tell me was probably that Vincent was what you had said about Russia, that they feared Russians.
See?
But he did, but I think now the two conversations have been together.
When he said we are, then he said I am.
He used the word fearful of what will happen after Jesus.
He just folks his hands off him as long as he can.
And so I see exactly what he said, that he did not go well.
The point was, I pressed field in the dynamic there.
He got to the kind of impression I was on, sort of thing.
Whether or not the impression I brought to him really did mean that it would be very significant.
He, of course, he has a girl here that's probably an Asian of both sides, and he said that he left the implication, he asked if the Russian doctor was one of the five, or had been one of the five, but one of the four questions out here indicated certainly not.
It did not go well.
I didn't expect you to tell me.
He threw up.
Yeah, yeah.
And then he got tealed, probably because he figures everything's gonna be clear.
He took a, took a lot.
He didn't, I suppose he didn't trust any interpreter, he just didn't catch her.
Oh God, he can't.
He's scared to death.
It's getting very interesting.
Well, at least we've got, now I see the two conversations stick together like a glove, because he was trying to tell me exactly the thing, and it's obvious why I'm afraid.
You know, and he always talks in an ominous way.
I was like, you know, he's tough, tough and strong, and I was so, and I saw him out, actually.
I saw what he did, you know, our citizenship protocol, right?
And so this fits very, very well.
Now, I don't think I'll try to explore this with people who are going to do this.
No, no, no, no, I don't mean to mention this conversation, but I think that we've gotten the message, and now there's people out there that is afraid, is afraid of psychoanalysts next to the Russians.
That's good to know.
Wonderful, wonderful, good.
It is an issue of the eyes.
Hope you go there and then sign at the sanity meeting.
But for good as the weather goes there.
Oh great, one meeting right now.
Yeah.
What reception?
Oh Jesus Christ.
Yeah, okay.