Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 627 › Conversation 627-003

Nixon, Haldeman & Kissinger on Tax Reform Act and European Security Conference

Wednesday, December 1, 1971 · 9:15 AM–10:05 AM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Kissinger, Henry A.; Bull, Stephen B.; Butterfield, Alexander P.Conversation627-003 on Tape 627 (tape position 00:45:47–01:07:14)StartWednesday, December 1, 1971 at 9:15 AMEndWednesday, December 1, 1971 at 10:05 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 627-003 ↗

President Nixon met with H.R. Haldeman, Henry Kissinger, and other staff to coordinate his upcoming trip to Chicago, address legislative priorities, and discuss sensitive foreign policy matters. The group strategized on managing tax bill negotiations with Wilbur Mills, navigating the political implications of campaign finance legislation, and handling diplomatic tensions regarding the European Security Conference and an upcoming meeting with Golda Meir. Additionally, they reviewed personnel changes involving Arthur Fletcher and confirmed the cancellation of Billy Graham's planned trip to Taiwan.

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This conversation has not yet been cut into its own clip, so the player above contains the full tape segment shared with neighbouring conversations. It begins about 00:45:47 into the tape and ends around 01:07:14.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.
45:59I'm trying to catch you, but I have discovered just now that we have a problem in this Chicago state, which is completely our fault, and I don't see any way out of solving it now, which is that we have at the same hotel, at the same time you're going into the 4-H meeting, the National Association of Farm Editors, which is 120, and I saw both Dr. Deere and Dr. Davis, that brought us some over.
46:30The 50 state chairmen of the American Farm Bureau are there for their planning session for the Farm Bureau Convention next week, which we turned down.
46:38I think that you've got to not ignore them.
46:41They're all in the Hilton Hotel.
46:43And the thing to do is, after the 4-H speech, that we do a handshaker with each of those.
46:53It's a hundred...
46:56About 120 people in the editor's thing and 50 people plus some staff in the Farm Bureau thing.
47:05I don't... Whitaker apparently had known this in quite a few posts.
47:11I don't know.
47:11He didn't know about the Farm Bureau.
47:13He just got a call last night from Roger Blum saying they were going to be there.
47:17Well, that's different.
47:17We wouldn't do that anyway.
47:20What?
47:21The way...
47:45Around it is to shake hands and not say anything.
47:49And for the Farm Bureau people to take a picture with each other, which will give them a local picture back, which is a good thing for us to have anyway.
47:58How many trees should we shake hands with?
48:00About 50 Farm Bureau and 100 to 120 of the other centers.
48:04Every second of all the other ones?
48:06No, it's got to be two different things.
48:07You can't put them both in the...
48:10They're there at different roads.
48:12They would be dropped by there and they would just let them come by and shake hands.
48:28I wouldn't do pictures with the editors.
48:32Just be gone, just a handshaker.
48:35Just let them go by and shake hands.
48:37Just say, I heard you were here, and I just wanted to come over and wish you luck in your meeting.
48:51Let them run by.
48:51They know, and apparently they have it set up, they're going to hear your other speech.
48:57The 4-H speech, because they know it's not a foreign speech.
49:05It's not a bad day out here, something that's not fine.
49:12There haven't been any questions, things that go through there.
49:26I'm sorry.
49:27I'm sorry.
49:27I'm sorry.
49:27I'm sorry.
49:28I'm sorry.
49:40I mean, you can't, we can't, Bob, do, make any decision because of Senator.
49:44You know what I mean?
49:46Yeah, and in the case of the, what I heard, he's basically an awful lot of stuff, but he isn't really, I thought, how wrong, when it comes to being bucked down, and getting everything done, he really isn't.
50:07It's at least recognizing this.
50:14It gets us out of the question of... Well, I'm not going to speak to them, that's for sure.
50:26There's going to be no speech to them, because I don't know anything right now to say.
50:41That's the recommendation that you not speak to them.
50:43I told them to make up a page of remarks for each of the groups.
50:48In case you do, you'll have to cut that out and say something, because then it can't go around.
50:53Yes, ma'am.
50:54Why do you think we're not putting this behind?
50:57That's because...
51:06just a few minutes and then I'll present it and I think the outcome ought to be either to say nothing but to indicate that we ought to push the end we ought not to come up with a position of the MP of our meeting, we ought to make our allies work through the various options or we're going to be in a never never land of figuring out in which we'll get blamed for whatever things
51:33We propose the only thing we could agree on now is a percentage cut which all our studies show is the worst.
51:41You won't get any opposition on that.
51:43I just want, on the European Security Conference, to delay as long as possible.
51:48Now, Bill thinks we can have preparatory meetings with the Russians.
51:52I guarantee you, if there are preparatory meetings, the Russians will agree to everything, and we'll be in a major European Security Conference before the summer, because the issues are so vague,
52:03I think the way to string it out is to say first the Berlin things have to be agreed on, then there should be a western deputy foreign minister's meeting to get the western position straight, and then by that time there'll be a summit time.
52:18Let it come out of the summit if it's got to be.
52:24Let the exploratory talks come out of the summit.
52:28Exploratory talks for Russia.
52:32He is willing to play with that.
52:35He thinks he can delay the exploratory talks, but that's what he thought of the Middle East.
52:41There hasn't been, you can delay exploratory talks only if you have concrete issues, but the European Security Conference deals with trade and culture and so forth, and is so vague.
52:53The second is he wants to see you afterwards for a few minutes, and you've agreed to that on Golden Mayhem.
53:01Their proposal to you is one that's all right.
53:04It was already in the Los Angeles Times to agree to the plans in principle and to have Cisco and Raffi work out the details.
53:13The tragedy is that they're caving now, because it'd be much better for our strategy if they'd hunt down, so that we could get the Russian thing started, but you can't tell him to be, not to cave.
53:27I mean, if you're going to do it, go in that direction anyway.
53:31You might urge them that we should ask them to be flexible in negotiations, that this has to be their side of the bargain.
53:39Because if we don't say anything about negotiations, they won't let us do anything prior to the summit.
53:48And then the heat will be off them completely.
53:51For where he was too tough before, I'm afraid they're now getting much too soft on them.
53:57And above all, you should be the one who settles it with her, not they at their luncheon.
54:03I made a mistake.
54:04We shouldn't have agreed to a lunch for them before you saw her.
54:09The archer is giving a lunch for her before she sees you.
54:16And I'm seeing her today informally to work out the agenda so I can set the things straight.
54:26She isn't our problem anyway, because she knows where the earthrunners are concerned to pull their guns.
54:32For those on the issue, that's not the point.
54:38And so, the achievement would be to answer me, not the general of this country, or to go very fast.
54:42I don't care, because I don't know where she comes from.
54:56Well, I guess that's all you can do if you can't get away with it.
55:23We can get away with it unless we're working on it.
55:25At this point, it's the best of abandonment.
55:30Bottom-up alternatives, and it's a good description.
55:36We should not be in this kind of position.
55:45Why did we agree to do it?
55:46I mean, can't we just go and not go to meetings?
55:49Or, weren't they told before?
55:50Didn't they ask before?
55:51I know, see, that's the problem.
55:57One of those things where we get all that checked out, all of the ground set ahead of time.
56:16A burger!
56:18Sir, the smile is an enigmatic smile, but he says there's no problem.
56:21He says give him 24 hours, and there will be a tax bill written the way you want it.
56:30He says you're going to have a tax bill that you will sign.
56:32There will not be a check-off thing, and they've already got the, all the equations they already have.
56:37That was to be expected, though.
56:39Yes, because they wanted to track him.
56:40They wanted to track him.
56:41They wanted to mess around and attack him.
56:43The check-out was horrible stuff.
56:47He says he's going to get it out.
56:49What's the communication?
56:51Where are you going to get the vote?
56:53No, not really.
56:54He's maneuvering.
56:56He's got Mills, apparently, moving into an awkward position.
57:01They're playing an awful lot of things.
57:02They're putting enormous pressure on him through the...
57:09lokal support thing, the most effective of which is the auto dealers, because they've got them scared to death, and if they leave the checkoff in, there's more pressure there than I thought, because about half the auto dealers have given the customer
57:29The tax refund already.
57:31And then held the voucher themselves so that they have to collect from the government rather than their customers.
57:38And about half the automobile dealers in the country will go broke if they don't get the money.
57:42They'll go broke and drop it in the bank.
57:46We can't follow that up with not doing that.
57:48We can't follow that up with not doing that.
57:50We can't follow that up with not doing that.
58:00So, I have a suggestion.
58:03Get her out of the way.
58:06Get her out of the way.
58:08Get her out of the way.
58:12Well, we're working the other side of it, getting a little bit of bias that Kevin Phillips' thesis, which you may have seen, which is a deliberative step, that really comes out of this book clearly and bluntly to one of the best.
58:23And what this is, is the labor-reducing control action, because it really does.
58:29It equalizes all other contributions and gives labor the stick to control presidential elections.
58:37Because it doesn't control them at all.
58:41Because it doesn't control them.
58:42So the difference in money in an election will be the labor market.
58:49They tried a labor market.
58:51They tried a way of maneuvering that one way that didn't work.
58:55And getting publicity.
58:57That's the problem.
58:57They can't.
58:59So we'll be looking at the cons here with Chekhov in an election region.
59:03Yes.
59:03Now becoming stronger.
59:05Yes.
59:07I don't think we're going to get salt made because of the fact they cleaned up the other part.
59:12No, they're going the other way.
59:13We need to make the case stronger.
59:15Because there is no public casemate really going to check off, and it's hard to make one because the public doesn't know what you're talking about.
59:22I don't think the public's all stirred up about the check on either way.
59:28I don't either.
59:30You?
59:30No.
59:30I think if you could make it clear to them, most of them are against Anderson's group, all the idea that we voiced it off.
59:36Well, that they're launching as a positive alternative kind of thing, so we aren't just in a position to be against helping.
59:46Well, it is sad.
1:00:03Good.
1:00:03But he's very, Clark's very, this is amazing, because he has been worried about it.
1:00:10He's shifted his worry now.
1:00:12He's worried about the foreign aid, OEO appropriation, because Hellinger has served notice that he's leaving for Africa next Wednesday, no matter what happens or doesn't.
1:00:24That'll be the end of it.
1:00:26And they don't think, they think they now have a problem even with the continuum resolution.
1:00:32Although the House is going to move to a point of appropriation, apparently.
1:00:35Dump that out of the Senate and see what happens.
1:00:40When the bus comes up today, the vote will be at 1 o'clock tomorrow.
1:00:44They start the... That's great.
1:00:51It's on your head.
1:00:53Art Fletcher, do you know about that?
1:00:55He's resigning from the United Nations delegation.
1:00:58to accept the post as head of the United Negro College Fund.
1:01:01Most things are just going down the drain.
1:01:08That's a big thing in the black field, though, and he feels that he could be more helpful to you out there than he can in here.
1:01:17And he's asked to retain his post as chairman of the Domestic Council Committee on Discrimination or whatever it is.
1:01:26He's written, send you a nice letter, go write one back.
1:01:28It's a very friendly move, and he feels it's a big opportunity for him.
1:01:32Those columns, if you agree, will come to the back, so they can survive.
1:01:36The white columns are the ones that survive.
1:01:45The right column is for him.
1:01:51I don't know.
1:01:52I don't know.
1:01:55They've got the other problem.
1:01:56If any faculty member they get who's any good at all, the white colleges snap up.
1:02:00Because the white colleges want house blacks.
1:02:04So they take any black with any talent.
1:02:06They hire at wages that black colleges can't pay.
1:02:15So they have an automatic mediocrity level there.
1:02:20These congressional people that are coming in here, you'll have to look back and have our opinion.
1:02:27And if you're going to get this true, it's an hour.
1:02:30You can't do it.
1:02:32It's an hour and a half.
1:02:46Okay.
1:02:46Okay.
1:02:46Boy, we really got it.
1:02:47Thank you.
1:02:48Thank you, Father.
1:04:08What happened, sir?
1:04:16Tell everybody the rest of the day.
1:04:18They don't see anything here.
1:04:25There we go.
1:04:25Status, please.
1:05:34Just so you know, Billy Graham is not making that trip to Taiwan.
1:05:37The more he got into it, the more he felt he was being used.
1:05:42And it was better for him not to go.
1:05:43He was already with us.
1:05:45It was hard to give it up to him.
1:05:47It could be helpful, but not if he didn't want to do it.
1:05:53It has to be let off the hook.
1:06:08It was close.
1:06:08Right.
1:06:09Right.
1:06:13Right.
1:06:13Right.
1:06:13Right.
1:06:15Right.
1:06:15Right.
1:06:16Right.
1:06:16Right.
1:06:17Right.

On December 1, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Henry A. Kissinger, Stephen B. Bull, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:15 am and 10:05 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 627-003 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 627-3

Date: December 1, 1971
Time: Unknown between 9:15 am and 10:05 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

     Schedule
          -Chicago
               -Conflict
               -National 4-H Congress
               -National Association of Farm Editors
               -American Farm Bureau
                    -President’s speech to the National 4-H Congress
                          -Meet and greet
                               -National Association of Farm Editors and the American Farm
                                      Bureau
               -John C. Whitaker

                -Earl L. Butz
                -Whitaker’s talk with Roger Clements
                      -Possible photo opportunity at the meet and greet
                           -Recognition

Henry A. Kissinger entered at an unknown time after 9:15 am.

     National Security Council [NSC] meeting
          -Allies
                -Options
          -European Security Conference
                -William P. Rogers
                      -Preparatory meetings with the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics
                            [USSR]
          -Berlin
                -Agreement
          -Western Deputy Foreign Ministers meeting
                -Western position rectified
          -Summit
                -Exploratory talks
                      -Rogers
                            -Possible delay of explanatory talks
                -Middle East
                -USSR
          -Rogers’ probable meeting with the President
          -Golda Meir
                -Joseph J. Sisco
                -Yitzhak Rabin
                -Los Angeles Times
                      -Proposal
                -Agenda
                -State Department
                      -USSR
                            -Negotiations
                                 -Shift in US policy
                -Rogers
                      -Lunch for Meir
                            -Meeting with Kissinger

Kissinger left at an unknown time before 10:05 am.

     Chicago
          -Schedule
               -Problems

     Clark MacGregor
          -Tax bill
               -Wilbur D. Mills
                    -Pressure
               -Auto dealers
                    -Potential problems of tax bill
               -Kevin P. Phillips
                    -Labor unions
                          -Control of Presidential elections
               -Campaign check off
                    -Public attitudes
                    -John B. Anderson

Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 9:15 am.

     Rogers's schedule

Bull left at an unknown time before 10:05 am.

     MacGregor
         -Foreign aid
         -Office of Economic Opportunity [OEO]
         -Appropriation
         -Allen J. Ellender
               -Trip to Africa
         -Continuing resolution
         -Butz
               -Upcoming vote

     Dr. Arthur A. Fletcher
          -Resignation from the United Nations [UN] delegation
                -United Negro College Fund [UNCF]
                      -Sense of helpfulness
                            -Importance in particular field
          -Chairman of the Domestic Council Committee on Discrimination
                -Post retained by Fletcher
          -Letter to the President

           -Negro colleges
                -Ability to survive
                -Black Professors
                      -White colleges
                            -Hiring tactics
                                  -Criticism

     Schedule
          -Congress
               -Kissinger
          -Chicago speech

[Pause?]

     American Pharmaceutical Association [?]

Bull entered at an unknown time after 9:15 am.

     Schedule
          -Chicago speech

Bull left and Alexander P. Butterfield entered at 10:05 am.

     Pierre E. Trudeau dinner
           -Guest list and table

Butterfield left at an unknown time before 10:10 am.

     William F. (“Billy”) Graham's trip to Taiwan
          -Trip cancelled

     Trudeau dinner

Haldeman left at an unknown time before 10:10 am.
  • 627-001 9:15 AM · 10 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:15 am and 10:05 am.
  • 627-002 9:15 AM · 35 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:15 am and 10:05 am.
  • 084-015 9:57 AM — President Richard M. Nixon and members of the National Security Council, including William P. Rogers, Melvin R. Laird, Gen. George A. Lincoln, John N. Mitchell, Richard M. Helms, Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, John N. Irwin, II, Martin J. Hillenbrand, David Packard, Philip J. Farley, Henry A. Kissinger, Col. Richard T. Kennedy, Philip A. Odeen, Helmut ("Hal") Sonnenfeldt, Gen. Alexander M. Haig, Jr., William G. Hyland, and Lt. Col. Walter B. Ratliffe, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 9:57 am and 11:59 pm.
  • 015-178 11:00 AM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:00 am and 12:15 pm.
  • 627-004 11:00 AM · 21 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and William P. Rogers met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:00 am and 11:29 am.
  • 627-005 11:29 AM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:29 am to 11:30 am.
  • 627-006 11:30 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:30 am and 11:36 am.
  • 627-007 11:36 AM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Richard W. Mallary, Raymond H. Nutter, Harry S. Dent, Alexander P. Butterfield, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:36 am to 11:42 am.

Conversation 627-003, December 1, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/627-003 (accessed October 9, 2026).