Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 774 › Conversation 774-004

Nixon & Flanigan on International trade and CIEP

Monday, September 11, 1972 · 9:59 AM–10:03 AM ET · Oval Office ·4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Flanigan, Peter M.Conversation774-004 onTape 774StartMonday, September 11, 1972 at 9:59 AMEndMonday, September 11, 1972 at 10:03 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 774-004 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Peter Flanigan met to organize the agenda and strategy for an upcoming Council on International Economic Policy meeting regarding trade relations with Europe. They discussed the necessity of aligning trade policy with broader national security and political interests, specifically regarding the U.S. grain trade and upcoming OECD negotiations. Nixon decided to avoid premature policy commitments, instructing Flanigan to focus the meeting on posing critical questions rather than reaching final decisions.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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by going public with it.
Does the layout look all right with you?
Sure.
Good.
All in trade, as I understand.
All in trade.
Well, I asked George if he wanted to say something about monetary and the ventures.
He said he wanted to ask everybody to come to their wives' reception at the monetary fund meeting.
The question was?
You can't tell me about monetary.
I do.
He doesn't need it.
The conclusion that some of these people have come to
that Henry expressed to me as I took my briefing paper is that before we settle too firmly here on an irrevocable course of action, we ought to review our overall relations with Europe, which this is only a part of.
We've asked, we have asked sometimes over the state for their comments in this area, and they're coming post-Christmas.
But Henry feels that
time we gave that some more thought, we've been thinking about all the other things.
And I would, as I suggested in my notes, you might just want to say thank you, and we'll proceed later rather than trying to reach a decision here.
Oh, yes, that's right.
I think that's a good idea.
You're going to do primarily a level on Europe today?
Just, not even on the monetary, not even on the trade negotiations next year, but on the negotiations that we're struggling with at the end of this year.
In the first month or two, what kind of a Europe?
On Europe.
Strictly on Europe.
What does Bill Everly and his people say when we come up against, for instance, the enlargement of what it does to our grain trade, whether to the UK?
Do we hang tough, or do we push it all off to the 1973 negotiations, or do we do something in between?
And the consensus is we don't bring the house down
But we vigorously protect every one of our trade interests.
And the reason they don't want to bring us down is because I'm not sure that fits in with your other strategies on security, political, et cetera.
But we do have this confrontation developing before the trade negotiations next year.
And it got tough in the OECD high-level group, where we took a position all by ourselves and said we wouldn't sign a document if it didn't include certain things.
Bill Everly shouldn't be making those decisions without the broader concurrence of you and the other people who are concerned.
So that's the purpose of the meeting.
You will take the lead in raising questions behind the scenes.
You want me to start off sitting at the table, or should I sit in the back?
No, we can.
Sure.
Sure.
Sure.

NARA Description

On September 11, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Peter M. Flanigan met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:59 am to 10:03 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 774-004 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 774-4

Date: September 11, 1972
Time: 9:59 am - 10:03 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Peter M. Flanigan.

        Foreign trade relations meeting
            -Council on International Economic Policy [CIEP]
                 -Agenda for meeting
                      -Trade
                 -George P. Shultz
                      -Monetary policy
                      -Arthur F. Burns
                 -Review of overall relations with Europe
                      -State Department
                      -Henry A. Kissinger
                 -Trade negotiations
                      -Europe
                      -William T. Eberle
                      -Effect
                      -US grain trade
                      -US trade interests
                      -Organization for Economic Cooperation and
                       Development [OECD]
                           -US position
                           -Eberle
                 -Flanigan’s role
                 -Length of meeting
                 -Questions

Flanigan left at 10:03 am.

                                         (rev. Oct-06)

Also recorded on September 11, 1972

  • 774-001 9:18 AM · 17 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:18 am and 9:40 am.
  • 774-002 9:18 AM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:18 am and 9:40 am.
  • 774-022 9:18 AM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:18 am and 9:40 am.
  • 774-003 9:40 AM · 26 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, White House operator, unknown person(s), and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:40 am to 9:59 am.
  • 774-023 10:03 AM · 27 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:03 am and 10:06 am.
  • 105-005 10:06 AM — President Richard M. Nixon and members of the Council on International Economic Policy, including William P. Rogers, George P. Shultz, Peter G. Peterson, Earl L. Butz, Herbert Stein, Peter M. Flanigan, Caspar W. ("Cap") Weinberger, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Carroll G. Brunthaver, [David] Kenneth Rush, William R. Pearce, Deane R. Hinton, James B. Loken, Robert J. Morris, Robert D. Hormats, Ronald L. Ziegler, and the White House photographer, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 10:06 am and 11:06 am.
  • 774-005 10:06 AM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:06 am and 10:09 am.
  • 774-006 10:06 AM · 23 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:06 am and 10:09 am.

All 36 conversations from September 11, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 774-004, September 11, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/774-004 (accessed September 18, 2026).