Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 774-004
Date: Monday, September 11, 1972 at 9:59 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Flanigan, Peter M.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/774-004

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:06] by going public with it.
[0:11] Does the layout look all right with you?
[0:13] Sure.
[0:14] Good.
[0:14] All in trade, as I understand.
[0:18] All in trade.
[0:18] Well, I asked George if he wanted to say something about monetary and the ventures.
[0:23] He said he wanted to ask everybody to come to their wives' reception at the monetary fund meeting.
[0:30] The question was?
[0:31] You can't tell me about monetary.
[0:34] I do.
[0:35] He doesn't need it.
[0:38] The conclusion that some of these people have come to
[1:05] 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.
[1:20] We've asked, we have asked sometimes over the state for their comments in this area, and they're coming post-Christmas.
[1:31] But Henry feels that
[1:33] time we gave that some more thought, we've been thinking about all the other things.
[1:35] 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.
[1:44] Oh, yes, that's right.
[1:46] I think that's a good idea.
[1:50] You're going to do primarily a level on Europe today?
[1:54] 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.
[2:02] In the first month or two, what kind of a Europe?
[2:05] On Europe.
[2:06] Strictly on Europe.
[2:07] 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?
[2:17] Do we hang tough, or do we push it all off to the 1973 negotiations, or do we do something in between?
[2:23] And the consensus is we don't bring the house down
[2:29] But we vigorously protect every one of our trade interests.
[2:33] 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.
[2:42] But we do have this confrontation developing before the trade negotiations next year.
[2:50] 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.
[2:59] Bill Everly shouldn't be making those decisions without the broader concurrence of you and the other people who are concerned.
[3:06] So that's the purpose of the meeting.
[3:09] You will take the lead in raising questions behind the scenes.
[3:14] You want me to start off sitting at the table, or should I sit in the back?
[3:19] No, we can.
[3:20] Sure.
[3:21] Sure.
[3:32] Sure.