Conversation 798-013

President Nixon met with Soviet Minister of Merchant Marine Timofey B. Guzhenko and Ambassador Anatoliy F. Dobrynin to discuss the resolution of a difficult maritime agreement between the two nations. Nixon emphasized the broader diplomatic importance of the deal, framing it as a constructive step toward improved political relations and greater cooperation at sea. The discussion also included social exchanges regarding the recent positive reception of Julie Nixon Eisenhower aboard a Soviet ship in Baltimore and invitations for the President's family to travel to the Soviet Union.

US-Soviet relationsMaritime agreementDiplomacyTrade negotiationsBilateral relations

On October 14, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Timofey B. Guzhenko, Anatoliy F. Dobrynin, Peter G. Peterson, Peter M. Flanigan, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:33 am to 11:53 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 798-013 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 798-13

Date: October 14, 1972
Time: 11:33 am - 11:53 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Timofey B. Guzhenko, Anatoliy F. Dobrynin, Peter G. Peterson, and

                                       (rev. Nov-03)

Peter M. Flanigan ; the White House photographer and members of the press were present at the
beginning of the meeting.

        Greetings
            -Peterson

        [Photographic session]

        US-Soviet Union maritime agreement
           -Negotiations
               -Difficulty
                    -Rates
                         -Moscow
                              -The President’s meeting with Leonid I. Brezhnev
                              -Congress
                                  -Peterson, Flanigan
           -Implications
               -Continuation of constructive relationship
               -Political matters
                    -Probability of closer relations
                         -Anatoliy F. Dobrynin, Andrei A. Gromyko
               -Julie Nixon Eisenhower
                    -Visit to Soviet ship [Tovarishch]
                         -Baltimore
                              -Reception from Soviet Union sailors
                    -Possible visit to Soviet Union
                         -[Dwight] David Eisenhower, II
                         -Brezhnev
               -Tricia Nixon Cox
                    -Possible visit to Soviet Union
               -Work
                    -Peterson
               -The President’s trip to the Soviet Union
               -Julie Nixon Eisenhower
                    -Baltimore visit to Tovarishch
               -Visits
                    -New York
                    -Leningrad
           -The President's schedule
               -Future trip to Soviet Union
                    -Wines
                         -Kiev

                                        (rev. Nov-03)

                         -Ukraine
                         -Georgia
                              -1966 vintage
                         -California, New York
                         -Kotovsk
             -Guzhenko’s efforts

         Gifts
             -Cuff links
                 -Presidential seal

         Private message from Dobrynin
             -Henry A. Kissinger

         The President’s possible travel on Soviet Union ship

Guzhenko et al. left at 11:53 am.

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.

Well, if you don't mind, will you sit over here?
Sit over here.
We'll put you on a result.
What can we do?
Can we continue to react to him?
It's not going to be long, and I don't know where that's going to be.
I don't know.
Go ahead.
Get around the back.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yes, Mr. President, you have very good information.
The negotiations were really very difficult.
And especially on one point, about the tariffs on rates.
He said it was a social period of time, especially in Moscow, because it was a little more than some rates previously with Mr. Peterson, but then he changed his position.
So he's pleading for an office, that's the only thing that's going on, so he would like to...
He has to help him in his election campaign.
I don't know if you understand what I'm saying.
You don't understand what I'm saying.
Okay.
I want to say to the Minister, and I particularly want the Minister to report this to the Chairman of the Russian Union, of course, and to his colleagues in government, and so to the government, that we believe in keeping our word on agreement.
And when I found that there was this dispute after we had agreed in principle in Moscow, I was very distressed.
Not because we had a dispute with the way it was supposed to go.
I didn't know.
But we had, as Mr. Peterson and Mr. Flanagan told you, some difficult problems here with our congressional situation.
And we had no choice but to try to
I'm so understanding of our position and we will try to make it worth your while here today.
I would like to say that the fact that I was able to give you a job
I consider this, while it deals with a very important but basically narrow subject, I consider it much broader because it has very positive implications for a continuing relationship, which is constructive for both sides.
We see the two
these two great nations getting closer together on the sea and the ports of each country.
This means that we have the possibility of getting closer together in some of the political matters that Ambassador and I discussed.
You can take a look at that .
For example, my daughter, Julie, was very impressed when she visited the Soviet ship in Baltimore.
And a wonderful welcome she received in the Soviet service.
She came back, she said that when her husband, they had asked her to talk to me, that she and her husband wanted to live in the Soviet Union.
I wish you would have told Mr. Gresham that.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
When I got into the United States, I was in the U.S.
I was in the U.S.
And I also promised my older brother, Trish, who was married in the White House, right up there, that she would come and go sometime in this convenience.
I'm a person who doesn't give a bit of a profit.
I don't believe it.
I didn't believe it.
I didn't believe it.
But the main point I wish to emphasize, and all the hard work and the enormous material that you and Secretary Peterson have worked on, it is important, but it has implications far greater, and I think you have made a great contribution to good relations between our two countries.
on the seas and in other areas as well.
On the seas and in other areas as well.
And you know the point of view of our leadership in Moscow.
They do share your view.
They think that it was not the right country politically.
And it was the first very concrete important steps which cut out of the aesthetic, which was initially made to make you always in Moscow.
But as you rightly mentioned, most nations will see the service of the other nations, that they are forced to get ready to understand our countries and to help politically as well.
On behalf of our young people, I would like to express my gratitude to your daughter, who left very good memories and impressions of the visit to the Soviet Union.
Our young people were very happy and happy to be able to get acquainted with our country.
And if you have a desire to visit the Soviet Union, I would not even be able to report it in Moscow,
When they will be separately, we will organize a regular passenger line to New York and our passenger ship.
It is necessary to have a journey, free of charge, with good comfort and service.
It would be necessary to leave it to the authorities, if they understand what to do.
that you really advised or allowed your daughter to come to this ship which was in Baltimore.
The whole crew of that ship, which is called Tavaishi, really were delighted to see the daughter of the president.
Yes, yes, yes.
That's why the captain and the sailors of that ship asked him, even to the opportunity to convey to your daughter, there are many thanks, because it was really exciting, because that was the first time really they had such a very nice, really lovely,
Before, he asked me to do it, so now I will do it the same way.
On the second, he said, even without mentioning yes or reporting to the government or to Mr. Brezhnev,
fighting now, both of your daughters, together or separately, because he had, under his guidance, had a huge fleet of Russia, and he hoped, maybe next year, there will be a passenger line, New York, Black Sea, New York and Lenin.
In this case, he would like to invite
I hope that sometime in the future I will have a chance to come to Sweden again because after having been to Kiev
I made some comments about how fine the Ukrainian Bordeaux-type wine was, red wine.
And then the foreign minister said, you've got to try Georgian wine.
And my ambassador sent me some Georgian wine.
And I did.
The 66 red wine is excellent, excellent.
So I want you to know I'm a salesman for both Georgia and Kiev.
Okay, and you're great.
Well, okay.
You should play a competition with you now.
Oh, well, that's fine.
I count on you to be in New York.
I'll try to do it.
Thank you.
I was going to suggest places like Cobas,
Jackson
We're not going to give.
He got me under obligation to do it.
Under obligation to do it.
Under obligation to do it.
Under obligation to do it.
Mr. President, I am so happy that you expressed your thanks to the Soviet government.
I would like to emphasize that by expressing it to this fine man.
He came here expecting to stay two days, and he's been here two years.
Well, we can't express our gratefulness in any substitute way, but I always give distinguished visitors so they can remember this.
These are the presidential couplets.
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah.
Goodbye.
Goodbye.
Goodbye.
Thank you very much.