Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 808-005
Date: Friday, October 27, 1972 at 11:16 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Lee, Harold; White House photographer; Bull, Stephen B.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/808-005

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:04] How are you?
[0:04] How are you?
[0:07] Nice to see you.
[0:09] Nice to see you.
[0:10] How are you, Dad?
[0:11] Good.
[0:12] That's it over here.
[0:13] All right.
[0:14] All right.
[0:18] Fine.
[0:19] Fine.
[0:19] And how's your family?
[0:21] Oh, okay.
[0:23] That's good to know.
[0:26] That's good to know.
[0:28] Do you have?
[0:29] Yes.
[0:29] Do you have two girls or two girls?
[0:31] Yes.
[0:45] Thank you.
[0:49] Thank you.
[1:17] It's terrible.
[1:26] oh first the leaders of course is very old and he will not live long but he is
[1:57] uh in terms of ability
[2:21] Thank you.
[2:26] Thank you.
[3:49] They have done a great job, frankly, of putting an enormous country together and getting it to start to produce.
[4:00] But in terms of what really matters in life, they have destroyed it.
[4:05] That is the sad part.
[4:09] That's not what's going to happen.
[4:15] Chinese without having an enormous influence in the world.
[4:20] I hope to God that over a period of time, shall we say, I don't know if it will, inevitably, of course, they will have a
[4:48] Yeah.
[4:48] Yeah.
[5:02] Amen.
[5:03] Amen.
[5:31] Thank you.
[6:32] I said, I know the unsure view, but I'm going to tell you why you can't do it.
[6:37] Why it's not very interesting.
[6:39] I said, if we get out of Japan, we have to beat our enemies.
[6:44] And here's Japan.
[6:44] We have a frustration that we've been defeated.
[6:48] We're a great people with an enormous drive and economic drive.
[6:52] What do you think they're going to do?
[6:53] They're either going to make a deal with the Russians, or they're going to read.
[6:58] And I said, isn't it better to have us there restraining than to have them alone?
[7:02] And from then on, they say they've left it entirely alone.
[7:08] That's why they didn't raise the point.
[7:10] The Japanese, they didn't tell us.
[7:14] They said, well, we're not going to get the hell out.
[7:17] But the U.S. state, they want the U.S. to get the initiative against the Chinese.
[7:31] Thank you.
[7:42] I did a lot of reading.
[7:55] I did a lot of reading.
[8:20] Oh.
[8:33] But you've got to remember that 800 million Chinese, both of the people of the world, are going to play a great role in the world 15, 20 years from now.
[8:42] And it's done well in our interest to be talking with them.
[8:50] Thank you.
[9:36] Thank you.
[10:29] Thank you.
[10:41] Is this something
[11:07] Okay.
[11:37] I can assure you that in one way or another, the war will be over before the end of the year.
[11:44] Like that.
[11:44] And then, we'll get on with the big arrow-less fight.
[11:47] We're going to play the Chinese against the Russians.
[11:52] I don't just want to know who you'll go to.
[11:53] I do agree.
[11:53] Because I don't trust either one of the bastards.
[11:56] Understand?
[11:56] I'm not rewriting people.
[11:57] Let me say what I was told.
[11:58] Let me say that another thing.
[12:00] No, because it's the Russian people.
[12:01] And I can only say this to a friend.
[12:07] Thank you.
[12:16] I just wish you and I...
[12:45] Thank you.
[13:00] I don't know.
[13:54] I respect the pressure.
[14:12] We're going to get along for a while.
[14:15] We don't trust him, and he doesn't trust me.
[14:18] And that's the way I started the conversation.
[14:19] And I told him, I said, you have no reason.
[14:21] I told him lots of times.
[14:23] I said, Mr. Chairman, I said, you know my background.
[14:26] I said, you have no reason to trust me.
[14:29] And of course, I have no reason to trust you.
[14:34] Let's not talk about that.
[14:34] Let's talk about our interests.
[14:36] Well, that's the way they talk to you.
[14:50] Thank you.
[15:14] Thank you.
[16:03] Thank you.
[16:22] Tell me about, do you still have the house in the Hill?
[16:25] Yes.
[16:25] One day, the next term, I hope to come.
[16:27] I'm going to go to my wife and see if she's there.
[16:35] Thank you.
[16:52] Thank you.
[17:24] Thank you.
[17:53] Thank you.
[18:26] I did all that.
[18:51] Thank you.
[19:37] Thank you.
[19:58] It's out there in the heartland.
[20:01] It's the farmers.
[20:04] It's the labor guys like George King.
[20:06] It's the Italians.
[20:07] It's the Catholics.
[20:09] It's the good fundamentalist Protestants.
[20:14] Thank you.
[20:32] Thank you.
[20:59] Thank you.
[21:33] Thank you.
[21:57] Thank you.
[22:22] I'm sorry.
[22:30] I'm sorry.
[22:57] My friend, Harold.
[23:17] Thank you.
[23:46] Thank you.
[23:56] Good luck.
[24:03] Good luck.