Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 735-014
Date: Thursday, June 15, 1972 at 3:04 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Al Saud, Sultan ibn Abd al-Aziz (Prince); Sowayel, Ibrahim al-; Laird, Melvin R.; Haig, Alexander M., Jr.; Nowfel, Camile; White House photographer
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/735-014

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:01] Sit over here.
[0:04] Sit here.
[0:06] Sit over here.
[0:27] And, uh, Matt, Mal, who will sit here.
[0:29] Mr.
[0:30] Ambassador, uh, John, why don't you sit here?
[0:35] That's an awful lot of ambassadors in the future.
[0:37] They're very hard because they want pictures.
[0:41] All right?
[0:42] Well, you had good meetings, Mal.
[0:43] We had very good meetings.
[0:44] We had, uh, very successful discussions.
[0:47] We were all together.
[0:49] We've been able to be more comfortable.
[0:52] Right, right.
[2:14] Oh yeah.
[2:29] Everybody else?
[2:47] Mrs. Nixon's going to Texas tomorrow.
[2:49] You better go.
[2:50] I would love to.
[2:51] I wish I could, Mr. President.
[2:54] You just never travel.
[2:57] Well, I'd like to, but you don't expect me to.
[3:00] Sometimes I'll just invite you so you won't have to.
[3:02] I'll arrange it.
[3:03] Thank you very much.
[3:04] I appreciate that.
[3:05] Thank you, Mr. President.
[3:06] It is expensive.
[3:07] Thank you.
[3:09] I'll have that in mind wherever you are.
[3:12] Thank you, sir.
[3:13] Thank you.
[3:17] Well, the Secretary, of course, has informed me of some of his talks with you.
[3:27] And the position of our government is united on this, on our support for your objectives.
[3:47] We know you confront great dangers in your part of the world.
[3:57] And we wish you well.
[4:19] I particularly appreciate the opportunity to have this talk with him because I had a very good talk with the Shah in Iran and he spoke very highly of his close relationship with Saudi Arabia.
[4:50] When we see what happened in Iraq, we well realize the dangers we all confront in that part of the world.
[5:04] So you come down to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait.
[5:12] Iran and the oil-producing countries, and then you have, of course, Jordan, which is extremely important to the security area.
[5:34] And we are very interested in all those developments.
[5:40] I was very glad to know that the Jew were given strong support to the King of Iran, Shah of Iran.
[6:11] and we have, in spite of Jordan's survival in the country.
[6:33] I would like to thank the King for his courage, and he is really brave in this support and support.
[6:38] I would like to thank the President.
[6:40] I would like to thank the King for his courage, and I would like to thank the King for his courage, and I would like to thank the King for his courage, and I would like to thank the King for his courage, and I would like to thank the King for his courage,
[7:02] First of all, Mr. President, I would like to express to you my thanks for this opportunity.
[7:12] I'd like to convey to you the greetings and the best wishes
[7:31] And everything you try to do, which is you, as far as your health is concerned, your efforts and the goals in the service of the cause of peace, the United States today is the champion of peace in the world.
[7:44] Everybody looks to the U.S. as being the greatest supporter of the cause of peace in the world.
[7:50] When the name of President Nixon is mentioned, immediately one thinks of peace.
[7:57] Why?
[8:31] Mr. President, what you have expressed, what you have stated with regard to the dangers that confront us
[9:02] our countries, how we arrived here.
[9:05] It's very pleasing to us.
[9:06] We appreciate your understanding of the situation in this respect.
[9:11] As far as our friendship with the Shah of Iran is concerned, I'd like to assure you that
[9:17] by a very close friendship.
[9:20] And certainly the case, as far as Jordan and we are concerned, likewise with Kuwait.
[9:27] As a matter of fact, we are friends of most of the countries of the area.
[9:31] The only ones we are not friends with are those who have deliberately intended
[9:40] The only countries we're not in good terms with are those countries which meant to be our entities and have declared their intentions as far as our relations with them are concerned.
[10:00] Yes, he plans to go to the bar.
[10:03] How are you going to do that?
[10:10] I think Secretary Rogers will stop there on his way around the world.
[10:13] He's going on around the world after attending the COK, and I think he's going to stop there.
[10:19] We're trying to do this at that base that the British had, and now we're leaving, and we're kind of using parts of it for our force, naval force.
[10:29] He, of course, is already with the Soviet regime, so he has what he wants to do.
[10:37] Mr. Rogers was here last year.
[10:40] It's very pleasing for us to have a friend of ours like Mr. Rogers to visit Daring in our area.
[11:12] What about the military situation in that area?
[11:21] Do you discuss those kinds of things?
[11:24] Yes, Mr. President.
[11:25] We went into the training programs, the modernization program, the five-year modernization program, which we've been going, giving them assistance and help with their training program.
[11:42] some ship sales that we are making and the training ship that we are going forward with.
[11:48] We have a very fine cooperative working relationship in this military field with his department and we've been able to make some improvements in the last year and during this visit here this week we've been able to go forward with some other programs with him.
[12:54] I'd like to say, Mr. President, with connection that I'm most thankful
[13:23] to my friend, Secretary Laird, for his responsiveness.
[13:27] And I'm also thankful for the opportunity which I was afforded to meet with the service secretaries.
[13:37] I spent about six hours on that day holding discussions at the Department of Defense.
[13:44] They were very pleasant.
[13:48] and they seem to be the most rewarding, very encouraging, and we are hopeful that we get the support that we need for our armed forces in Saudi Arabia, and that the requirements that are so urgent will be met as soon as possible.
[14:13] We have a very fine F5 program going forward.
[14:17] present in aircraft.
[14:19] And we have assured the press that he will not have any difficulties as far as his spare parts and support for the new contract is concerned.
[14:29] And the Defense Department stands behind that contract.
[14:33] Saudi Arabia has had some unfortunate experiences with some other suppliers, but he will not have that experience with the United States.
[14:41] I hope that the view of what happened in Iran, the cooperation between Iran
[15:10] And Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are very, very close on the military side, because the support of subversive elements in that area, and the Iraqi action may become a great increase.
[15:37] Not that I mean that.
[15:42] We would like to see cooperation between Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran in order to support these forces, because the support of these forces will increase in the future with the help of more people in the region.
[16:05] I would like to say that this is a very important issue.
[16:44] and the borders of Kuwait, and the sea and the desert, and even the cities close to our country, which is the capital of Kuwait.
[16:52] All of us want to assure our neighbors that we are a country that wants peace, and that we will never die.
[17:02] We will never die, and we will never die without love.
[17:06] This is the message of the whole region.
[17:12] In this respect, Colonel, I'd like to say that this is precisely what we believe and what we believe should be done.
[17:17] As a matter of fact, His Majesty King Faisal has done his best to overcome the difficulties which had existed between our government and Iran regarding the borders, and His Majesty has made
[17:39] of what Iran is very good.
[17:41] The same thing is true of our relationship with Kuwait, with which we had certain problems and difficulties with regard to areas, both land and sea areas.
[17:54] And as a matter of fact, a port, a city, Port Saroud, King Saroud, has been actually given to Kuwait.
[18:06] And in this way, we have been able to solve our problems with Kuwait.
[18:11] And I'd like to assure you, Mr. President, that the policy of our government is to work for peace.
[18:21] We believe in building and not in destroying.
[18:25] What is the situation, Your Highness, with regard