Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 746-011
Date: Saturday, July 1, 1972 at 11:07 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Johnson, U. Alexis
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/746-011

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:08] Bill doesn't want to wait until the 13th when Kevin Durbin is back.
[0:17] Grant Hartman, of course,
[0:46] My only information is that they're going to have to go ahead on the 9th and see some other official and help the government.
[0:54] It's not his fault.
[0:55] But he would have a strong opinion about it.
[0:59] Bill apparently very much wants to call on the 9th and then call on some Italian official and then come on.
[1:07] Rather than waiting for 13, otherwise he would have to stay around someplace over there.
[1:16] But I know this hassle about I've been truly a citizen, having always received it.
[1:22] What church is he going to be coming in?
[1:25] Of course, that's an obsession, too.
[1:30] What is your view?
[1:31] Will the Italian government feel that bad about it?
[1:36] Yeah.
[1:43] Yeah.
[1:44] Wow.
[1:46] Yeah.
[1:47] Wow.
[1:50] Oh.
[1:57] Yeah.
[1:58] Oh yeah.
[2:00] Yeah.
[2:00] That'd be great.
[2:07] Yeah.
[2:10] Right.
[2:12] I heard it.
[2:14] Yeah.
[2:16] That's my prayer.
[2:18] Let me stay on the Pope.
[2:20] We can have a Pope.
[2:21] I mean, I just, frankly, it's always good to see the Pope get on so that he doesn't, so he sort of stays in line on other things.
[2:31] But we do have a hell of a lot of contacts, right?
[2:33] And my view is that if Algeria would be added, it's infinitely more important.
[2:39] Everybody's doing it.
[2:42] Yeah, but let me suggest that
[2:47] trying to get him on the phone, but they were like, I'll sort of, sort of, you know, I mean, I'll, it's really, your government is impressed, and Henry wrote a little memorandum, and we've been, I'm just, we're all just, you know, that was said because we don't know what the, what he wants to do, and I don't want to, but you have to listen to your ambassador, in this case, and Mark really feels strongly about it.
[3:13] So the Italians are so complacent, even this is apparently the first
[3:17] Yeah.
[3:20] Oh, and then, I see.
[3:30] Well, then I need you to write one for all of them.
[3:32] You should knock off the rankings.
[3:35] See, my rank is supposed to be in the 13th.
[3:37] Rankings are not supposed to be in the 12th.
[3:48] Oh, I see, right, right, well.
[3:56] Right, right, yeah.
[4:02] Yeah, well, if the Algerian reaction is favorable, I would be very much with that, and then you could go see the Pope, too, which would be the better thing to do.
[4:14] Yeah, yeah.
[4:20] All right, fine.
[4:24] If you would do this, I don't leave one o'clock in California.
[4:32] If you would just, Henry's out there.
[4:47] If you would just bill him in and tell him that my view is exactly this.
[4:50] One, if Algeria is on, then bill on Algeria.
[4:54] If two, if it is not on, then he should not see the vote.
[5:02] And leave that under Reagan and come on.
[5:05] And that's the way we should operate.
[5:08] Because I can see that Bill probably isn't going to have a lot to say about it.
[5:14] I just wanted somebody...
[5:15] Well, I wanted somebody to see.
[5:17] That was it, you know.
[5:18] Since nobody has seen since the Russian trip, I wanted somebody to see the boat.
[5:23] But Randy didn't do it.
[5:25] Sure, sure.
[5:27] You just go in there and tell them.
[5:30] I just signed something saying it's okay to go and so forth.
[5:36] I got the impression he wanted to go.
[5:39] But in spite of that, you could tell them everything.
[5:42] One, I prefer the Algeria.
[5:45] Okay.
[5:45] All right.