On October 9, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Russell E. Train, John C. Whitaker, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:36 am to 11:56 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 794-003 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.
Caviar, this is that.
I'm full of caviar.
Oh, it's great food, isn't it?
Great caviar.
Oh, yes.
Yeah, we should go here.
There he is.
Oh, hey.
The Russians are very sensitive about it.
They don't want us to deal with it.
Oh, that guy didn't do it?
No, it's not dirty.
It's not dirty.
Biggest amount of fresh water in the world.
It's bigger than our drink.
It is.
Why?
In fine.
It is 20% of the fresh water.
What do they have on it?
What do they have on it?
They have ferro.
They have ferro.
For one, they need to put in that 5%.
I was there the first time of day, I don't know.
But it was a good day.
Did you have a deal with the Western Secretary of State?
I had a big fuss with them on the American press, and I thought that I wanted to get some American press to deal with this.
And I went to the point of threatening to cancel the trip.
You were right, though.
You've got to make a little progress each time.
My doctor, when we took our trip over there, you realize they started out with a lot.
They don't want to know.
They don't want their secrets as far as what is bad to get out.
They're too sensitive, horribly sensitive.
They really are hilarious.
And they're so proud.
They don't want to admit that they did it wrong.
It's the Chinese who are so sure of themselves.
They tell us what is wrong.
They have so many good things going.
Yeah.
Historic preservation and renovation of the buildings and living there.
Yeah.
Fantastic job.
Great thing to talk about.
And I try to tell them that in Siberia, we've got these old wooden buildings that are quite technically out of line.
It's a lot of gingerbread decoration around.
Built many years ago.
They're carrying them down, putting up these sort of faceless concrete six-story buildings.
Russian modern, modern Russian architecture, architecture, most everyday architecture.
Useful, but I don't have it.
Moscow is a disaster for that reason.
They have a few nice buildings.
Leningrad is a beautiful place.
I can see living in Leningrad.
I didn't see living.
I'm sorry for our foreign service people in Moscow.
I think that this is a terrible life.
The embassy is associated with Leningrad.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm thick.
Some people think that he's a little bit on the dumb side.
He's smart.
He's smart.
They're all smart.
McCartney would be the best politician here because he's got a heart.
Well, he's got an open, honest face.
He told me he wished you, he said, I hope you have success in the election.
He said, I've been working with you for several million years.
See to the letters compared to him thanking you for your reception.
What we're going to do here
We've got a whole series of working groups, joint working groups, Soviet and U.S. set up in various project areas, such as the air pollution.
And those groups have schedules of range.
They'll be coming over here within this year, several of them, and several of us will be over there this year and early next year.
So the thing is really getting underway very rapidly.
He was, I thought, very straightforward about it.
He said, we've made our share of mistakes.
I told my brother in the state to put that study that was planned right on Lake Lyon.
I said, having made that mistake, I think you're doing a pretty good job of trying to prevent the pollution of the lake.
He said, we've made all the mistakes.
He said, just as you have.
And he made no effort to sort of cover this up.
Probably they don't go through this hot air of claiming that socialism doesn't
Yes, we did.
And they have some plans.
They ought to go see what we've got at the top of it, which could be, I don't know why people go there, but they do.
We have a joint project.
I don't know how they gamble now.
They don't have any casinos.
They don't hold a lot of money.
Hey, I have a lot of sign books.
They all count.
You want to call the casino, which is repopulated by Russians.
Yeah, yeah.
We talk about the Olympics quite a bit.
When you asked me to congratulate them on that, I did.
And he said, yes, both the US and the US have done very well.
But then he went on to say, you know, the GDR, East Germany, really wasn't brilliant at all.
Right?
Because we're a small country, so they didn't bring it.
As a matter of fact, the two Germans together won the whole thing.
You had a battle in East Germany.
That was the games.
I'll show you what the Germans are.
He asked me about your athletic activities.
What I do.
What your boys do.
No, I told you.
He hunts.
He hunts.
No, he doesn't.
He's a great hunter.
They all treat him like hunters.
He's not a Russian.
They go out to the Russian spot.
I told you to expect his voice.
next time you come to Moscow, we'll go and meet together.
He said, I look forward to the time when the Russians take on America in football.
They've done so well in basketball now.
Boy, that'll be a brutal contest.
They'll be good at, you know, at a very big line in the rest.
He talked about the hockey matches with Canada.
The Canada won by like four to three.
play hockey and big business.
And I sort of listened, and he said, the Canadians, after one of the games, came over and were talking to Kosygin, the environment, Russian, Soviet, and Golden, and said, we would like to buy him.
And Kosygin said, we sell horses and pigs and cows, but we don't sell human beings.
Very good.
didn't understand, you know, the whole of the Communist countries, they made a great deal out of this business, and we buy and sell baseball players, buy and sell football players, perhaps basketball players.
They don't realize what it is to be able to buy and sell.
It's pretty hard to explain.
It's pretty hard to explain.
Yeah, it's also hard to explain, too, that if you buy and sell the contract, the guy doesn't have to go.
He can stay the hell out of it.
He's got to do something else, but he doesn't have
The entire session of the Supreme Soviet, at which I gathered some of their conference, is devoted to the environment.
And I went to the meeting.
Is that right?
And heard Kirillin make an hour-long speech to the Soviet in Russia, which, of course, I couldn't understand.
All on environmental problems, very frankly stated in the Soviet Union.
And they are going to be moving, I suspect,
I don't think it had done that.
It was just one dressing.
Or just a cosmetic kind of thing.
They were worried about it.
They didn't know what was wrong.
Well, they didn't know.
I think there were other parts of the world.
So many people were changed.
It's all the investment .
There are some people that are civilized and some that never will be.
I mean, not all.
Not in our time, but in several centuries.
There's a confidence in that.
And it develops.
The Russians have a hell of a long way to go until people really become civilized.
Of course, not that civilization proves everything.
when you talked about your meetings there today, he said that the whole world, I think my friend's expression, the whole world except China applauded those discussions.
And then he said the real, the real, the real significance of this agreement, I think he meant all the agreements, but this agreement on environment is not just in bettering our bilateral relations, but it helps create a new
Other than climate or world cooperation.
I have a goal that in the next four weeks, if that be, I quote it.
Okay.
You should quote it.
In other words, put environment in terms, not just in terms of which we all understand, let's get cleaner water, cleaner air and all that, but in terms of working together in the environment
We are changing the international climate, international diplomatic climate, international political climate, etc.
I think it's a very good point.
You know, we use trade that way, for example.
We talk about trade in terms of dollar incenses, pushes, and so forth.
We say also trade in communication here changes the political climate, and so forth.
True.
In fact, each runs on the other.
The environment helps the others.
You've got to have something you can talk about that you agree.
Because our philosophies are so far apart.
The environment is one thing we can agree on.
Health is one thing we can agree on.
Scientific development is something we can agree on.
Right?
Just go right down the line.
Trade?
I'm going to try to beat each other, but on the other hand, there are some areas
talk in those terms that would be very, very useful.
Very useful.
I need the audience.
I think everybody likes to know his issue is finished.
His issue is finished.
They like to have it raised above his old selfish day-to-day desires.
They like to have it affecting the whole world.
So raise it above and lift it up a little.
Let them feel that they're playing a part.
And you find most of the audience will regret it.
I always find, for example, people who are very speeches on the Monday and Sunday, aren't very in relation to the Soviet Union.
So when you get questions of leaders or anything, or scientific exchange, I never leave it at those in just a few terms.
It comes out of the speech right.
how all of this affects the future, basically, plan of relations between the great powers and all powers in the world.
The other thing that is a very good thing is the cooperation between the two superpowers helps break the ice for the others.
A line that can be used here is perfect, of course, for your situation.
We have broken the ice now, the question, the problem,
When you have a thaw, it's the most dangerous and the most hopeful type of thaw.
I mean, all that, or it can mean blood, blood, and then again, the fight is that we don't recognize, we recognize that the two superpowers, minorities, encourage others.
For example, North and South Korea are not talking.
Japan and China are not talking, et cetera.
You can't be too polyamorous about it because people are always,
They were bored fighting each other, unfortunately.
The same true in Pakistan, I hear.
But nevertheless, that's because of the religious reasons, of course, in both cases.
Nevertheless.
that as we, don't leave it as just a Russian thing.
Of course, you've got your firemen, you've got your comrades, but people like to hear that we care a lot about Latin America and Africa
If, for example, the two most powerful nations, number one and number two, militarily and economically can take the choice, we're certain they're not going to get out the other way.
But if they can sit down and get together and make agreements and deals like this, why can't other nations do much?
So much as it's been two great powers.
certainly other nations.
Have some fun.
And also, I hope they gave you something.
the texture of the French, or the California, like the great Louis Martini, and the rest of the piece on that.
Many Europeans like it better because it's more, it has more character.
But I don't like it so much very much.
Okay, thank you very much.
That's right.
I'll be telling you in a minute, but I better go to the bathroom.