Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 871 › Conversation 871-005
Nixon, Shultz & Kissinger on International monetary policy
Wednesday, March 7, 1973 · 10:54 PM–11:41 PM ET · Oval Office · 47 min
AI Summary
President Nixon, George Shultz, and Henry Kissinger met to discuss international economic and diplomatic strategy, specifically focusing on the upcoming European monetary crisis and U.S.-Soviet relations. The group strategized how Shultz should handle European leaders, such as Helmut Schmidt, by providing leadership on currency stability without committing to unsustainable massive interventions. Regarding the Soviet Union, the participants agreed to prioritize trade and rapprochement while tactfully avoiding public focus on the issue of Soviet Jewry to ensure the success of pending trade agreements and upcoming summits. Additionally, the President provided guidance on managing relations with France during its upcoming elections and discussed administrative appointments and labor-management initiatives.
- International monetary policy
- US-USSR relations
- Trade policy
- European economic crisis
- Labor relations
- Diplomacy
Audio
Transcript (AI-generated)
This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 2% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.
This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.
Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data
Each line starts with a timestamp button; press it to play the audio from that point.
NARA Description
On March 7, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Thomas A. Pappas, unknown person(s), George P. Shultz, and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:54 pm to 11:41 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 871-005 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 871-5
Date: March 7, 1973
Time: 10:54 am - 11:41 am
Location: Oval Office
The President met with Thomas C. Pappas; the White House photographer was present at the
beginning of the meeting.
Photographs
-Trustworthiness
Henry J. Tasca
-Assignment
-New position
-Assistant secretary
-Economic area
-Ambassador to Greece
-Retention
-Retention in Greece
-George P. Shultz's conversation with Tasca
-Talk with Pappas
-Experience in Korea
-Tasca's wishes on assignment
-Greece
-Italy
-28-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
-John A. Volpe
-State Department
-Middle East desk
Greek prime minister [George Papadopoulos
-State visit
-Anti-communist
-Problems
-State Department
-President’s support
-Compared with Norway, Denmark
-Timing of state visit
-Greece’s independence
-Pappas’s conversation
-Pappas's visit to Washington, DC
-Support for president
-Respect, administration
-Other countries
-Italy, France, Balkans
-Prisoners of war [POWs] return
-Col. Robinson Risner [?]
-Visit to us
-Talk with President
-Problems
Frank Birch [?]
-Friend of Nixon family
-Acquaintance with President
-Gas distributor
-Whittier
-Conflict with oil companies
-Pappas’s financial assistance
-Partnership with Standard Oil
Watergate
-Pappas' activities
-President's knowledge
-Maurice H. Stans
-Gratitude
-Stans
-29-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 871-5 (cont’d)
-Innocence
-John N. Mitchell
-Innocence
-Committee to Re-elect the President [CRP]
-Involvement
-Guilt
-Low level staff
-Break-in
-White House involvement
-Pappas's support
-Break-in
-Democratic National Committee [DNC]
-Value
Paper for President
-Copy for Shultz
Meeting with Shultz
-Arrival
-Trip to Europe
An unknown person entered at an unknown time after 10:54 am.
Copies of a paper
The unknown person left at an unknown time before 11:01 am.
Dinner for the President's supporters in the business community
-Attendees
-Army Chorus
-“Stout-Hearted Man”
-Tricia Nixon Cox, Julie Nixon Eisenhower and Thelma C. (“Pat”)
Shultz
-Pappas’s greeting
1960 election
-Pappas, Leonard Garment
-30-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 871-5 (cont’d)
Shultz entered at 11:01 am.
Pappas's memo on international monetary situation
Pappas left at 11:02 am.
Shultz's trip to Europe
-Length of time
-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
-Itinerary
-Paris
-Bonn
-Moscow
-Bonn
-London
-Brussels
An unknown man entered at an unknown time after 11:02 am.
Schedule
-Henry A. Kissinger's attendance at meeting
The unknown man left at an unknown time before 11:10 am.
Shultz's trip
-Original schedule
-Rome, Moscow
-Paris meeting
-Meeting with Italians
-USSR
-Shultz's talk with Kissinger
-Political considerations
-Aleksei N. Kosygin
-Leonid I. Brezhnev
US-USSR trade
-Agreement [?]
-Guidance [?]
-Gas
-31-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 871-5 (cont’d)
-Most Favored Nation [MFN] status
-President’s position
-Support
-Soviet Jewry
-Golda Meir
Kissinger entered at 11:10 am.
US-USSR trade
-MFN status
-President’s commitment
-US position on internal affairs in USSR
-Soviet Jewry
-Kissinger's talk with Dobrynin
-Brezhnev
-Shultz’s talks with USSR
-Avoidance of topic of Soviet Jewry
-Congress
-Jackson Amendment
An unknown man entered at an unknown time after 11:10 am.
Refreshment
The unknown man left at an unknown time before 11:39 am.
US-USSR trade
-MFN status
-Shultz’s talks with USSR
-Jackson Amendment
-USSR domestic issue
-Avoidance of topic of Soviet Jewry
-Rearrangement of procedure
-President’s commitment
-Brezhnev
-Re-approachment
-Kissinger’s conversation with Dobrynin
-Natural gas
-Shultz's handling
-32-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 871-5 (cont’d)
-Brezhnev’s visit to US
-Shultz’s analysis
-Price increases in US
-Speculation
-Supplies
-Impact on USSR prices
-Protocol
-Brezhnev’s visit to US
-Concessions
-Gas companies
-John B. Connally
-William E. Simon
-Negotiating protocol
-US subsidies
-Role of President in negotiations
-Brezhnev's relationship with President
-Significance for US-USSR diplomacy
-Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
-Space agreements
-Environment
-Middle East
-Europe
-Vietnam
-Mining
-Brezhnev's role
-Visit to US
-Export-Import Bank of the US [Ex-Im bank]
-Credits for USSR
-Kissinger’s talk with [First name unknown] Voroskov [?]
-Shultz’s meeting with [First name unknown] Kemov [?]
-Kemov’s meeting with [First name unknown] St. Rego [?]
-Grain trade
-Shultz's view
-Surpluses
-US farm subsidies
-Problems
-Impact on markets of Soviet purchases
-Sales to People’s Republic of China [PRC]
-33-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 871-5 (cont’d)
PRC
-David Packard
-Meeting with President
-Contract
-Research and development [R & D]
-Delays
-Coordinating Committee on Export Controls [COCOM] [?]
-Value of PRC trade
-Kissinger's telephone call
-COCOM [?] list
-Overrule
International monetary situation
-US leadership
-Germany
-Political problem
-Intervention
-William H. G. Fitzgerald
-Partner of Hornblower and Weeks
-Conversation with Shultz
-Europe
-Need for US leadership
-Flexible response
-Europe’s reaction
-German secretary
-Intervention
-US exchange rate adjustments
-Reluctance
-Political benefits
-Germany and Japan
-Common float
-US support
-Germany’s reaction
-National float
-Domestic political consequences
-Germany
-Shultz’s talk with Helmut H. W. Schmidt
-Moderated common float
-Germany, Benelux, Switzerland, Denmark, Scandinavia
-34-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 871-5 (cont’d)
-France’s absence
-US cooperation
-Managing currency floats
-Flexible guidelines
-Arthur F. Burns’s recommendation
-Japan
-Exchange rate adjustment
-Basket exchange rate adjustment
-Defense of rates
-Floating currency regimes
-Concerns
-Defense of exchange rates
-French elections
-Gaullists compared with Socialist victory
-Coalition with Center Party
-Chile election
-Press coverage
-Electoral margin
-Gerrymander
-Impact on political like
-Giscard d'Estaing
-Monetary preferences
-Intervention
-Shultz's visit
-Georges J. R. Pompidou
-Statements regarding France
-Monetary position
-Gaulist Party
-Pompidou
-Kissinger's talk with French Ambassador [Jacques Kosciusko-
Morizet
-Shultz's statements
-US leadership
-Support for Pompidou
-Germany
-Schmidt
-Call to Kissinger
-Political views
-Successor to Willy Brandt
-35-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 871-5 (cont’d)
-Domestic position
-US role
-Floating German Mark
-US role
-Germany’s resolution
-Intervention
-Relationship to US dollar
-Removal of bans
-Stabilization of Mark
-Relationship to Franc
-Floating Franc
-Impact on farm sector
-Political fallout in Germany
-US cooperativeness
-Massive intervention
-Yen, Franc, Mark
-Schmidt
-Diplomatic manner
-Domestic situation
-National float
-Call to Kissinger
-US support
-Flexible system
-Impact on France-Germany relations
President’s schedule
Treasury Department
-Helmut (“Hal”) Sonnenfeldt
-Abilities
-Work at Treasury
-East-West trade, USSR trade
-Kissinger's agreement with Shultz
-June 1973 US-USSR summit
Kissinger left at 11:39 am.
Commission on Industrial Peace
-Organization
-36-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 871-5 (cont’d)
-Management Committee
-Subgroups
-Transportation
-Mass production
-David Coe
-Steel strike
-Chairman
-Frank E. Fitzsimmons
-Meeting with John T. Dunlop
-Concerns about James M. Roche
-General Motors [GM], chief executive
George Meany
-Dunlop
5.5 per cent wage settlement
-Meeting with Shultz and Dunlop
-5.5 per cent wage settlement
-President’s support
-Press relations
-President’s statement
-2.5 per cent inflation rate
-Meeting with Dunlop
-Shultz’s return
-Labor-management Advisory Committee
The President and Shultz left at 11:41 am.Also recorded on March 8, 1973
- 117-002 10:09 AM · 1 hr 24 min — President Richard M. Nixon and members of the National Security Council, including Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, William P. Rogers, Elliot L. Richardson, Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, Dr. James R. Schlesinger, Philip J. Farley, U. Alexis Johnson, [David] Kenneth Rush, William P. Clements, Jr., Carl Duckett, Henry A. Kissinger, Gen. Brent G. Scowcroft, Helmut ("Hal") Sonnenfeldt, Philip A. Odeen, Ronald I. Spiers, and Paul H. Nitze, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 10:09 am and 12:05 pm.
- 117-003 11:44 AM · 44 sec — unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 11:44 am and 12:05 pm.
- 117-005 11:44 AM · 13 min — Mustafa Khar, Aziz Ahmed, and Sultan Mohammed Khan, and unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 11:44 am and 12:05 pm.
- 872-004 11:44 AM · 56 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:44 am and 11:55 am.
- 872-005 11:44 AM · 56 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:44 am and 11:55 am.
- 872-006 11:55 AM · 13 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:55 am and 12:05 pm.
- 872-007 12:05 PM · 41 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, Sultan Mohammad Khan, Mustafa Khar, and Aziz Ahmed met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:05 pm and 12:46 pm.
- 872-008 12:46 PM · 24 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at 12:46 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 871-005, March 8, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/871-005 (accessed October 6, 2026).