Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 897-014
Date: Monday, April 16, 1973 at 12:40 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Hickman, Roy D.; Howard, W. Richard; White House photographer
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/897-014

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Are you the president?
[0:01] Well, I am the president.
[0:03] I would say you're the president.
[0:05] We're co-presidents.
[0:06] Yes, I am.
[0:07] And I just had a .
[0:08] I know.
[0:08] In South America.
[0:12] Yes.
[0:13] And I .
[0:13] I, uh, you still got .
[0:16] Yes.
[0:17] Let's go over here and get a better picture of your flying suit.
[0:24] And maybe you can have a picture with the award.
[0:27] Yes.
[0:27] I'm very proud of this.
[0:29] It's like Judge Walker.
[0:36] Oh, that's a Paul Harris award.
[0:38] I had him continue to color marvels to Dr. Herbert Harris.
[0:43] And he was a great Rotarian.
[0:45] He received a very national award for some fields.
[0:47] And we were so proud of him.
[0:49] This was in Woodyard, California.
[0:53] And I remember Dr. Herbert Harris taught English.
[0:55] And he loved Rotary.
[0:57] He loved English.
[0:58] He loved Rotary.
[0:59] And worked at the T-Series.
[1:01] This is so nice.
[1:03] I read your letter.
[1:05] I feel like he's approached him because he was a student in the faculty at Lake Placid, you know, where we all bring all of the industry governors every year, and so I'm very proud of him and CRK.
[1:24] Thank you very much.
[1:26] This is for you.
[1:27] This is for you.
[1:59] the world in late November and December.
[2:04] Cyprus, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, back in the United States in 28 days, and I had visited 15 nations.
[2:20] All of course, in India, I had an audience with the Madam Prime Minister, and I was particularly interested
[2:30] in the fact that she said that Rotary was one of the greatest movements for world peace because it works at the local level.
[2:40] And then she said another thing, that you teach your local chapters to support your own country.
[2:48] And I said, that's exactly right.
[2:50] It's not an American organization.
[2:53] It's an international organization.
[2:55] And my purpose here today is
[2:58] of the growth of the rotary, which you apparently know in India.
[3:04] And we say, and my theme this year is let's take a new look at ag, which means to take a new look at your own backyard, that you do not have a right to criticize someone else's community or nation unless you've cleaned up your own backyard.
[3:23] And she said, well, no, that's not that I've done.
[3:28] The only fault I found, I mean, our image, American image, and this is also interesting, Mr. President, as an American, why I could really feel the pulse.
[3:41] See, last year I succeeded in a sweep, and he came out around the world and found, I mean, it was a little poor, as it was, of course.
[3:51] But this year, after your trips,
[3:55] they begin to feel that really these Americans are not as braggadocio, not like all Texans.
[4:00] You know, we're all considered as Texans.
[4:04] But my thought this year has been to leave the head table at all of these big meetings, go and table hop and shake hands and say all this.
[4:16] I've had volumes of letters that you're the first American that has
[4:28] They said to the greatest ambassador we've had for your country.
[4:32] So this is the thing, plus what you have done in this, you don't see as many signs.
[4:38] For instance, I just, last week, back from South America, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, had an audience with the president of Chile.
[5:05] In Brazil, we really have an excellent image in Brazil.
[5:10] I was in Porto Alegre, which is southern Brazil, in Rio, helping to leave Rio celebrate its 50th anniversary.
[5:19] The Rotary's establishment in Brazil was three weeks ago, and I was there.
[5:25] Very, very, there is a close tie.
[5:28] Now, in Argentina, the members of the Rotary Club, of course, are against parole.
[5:35] This I was going to find out.
[5:37] They do not fear him as they did before.
[5:40] They don't think that he's going to carry as much.
[5:45] Chili?
[5:47] No.
[5:48] But I had many good meetings with many Rotarians there, and I feel like that it's hopeful.
[5:58] It's really hopeful.
[6:01] You don't see as many signs.
[6:03] Go home, Yankee.
[6:05] You know, we used to see all over the world.
[6:07] But Asia, I was particularly pleased with.
[6:12] I had sort of a diplomatic job.
[6:15] I had to go to Pakistan to tell them that they could no longer have in their district the Rotary Clubs in East Pakistan.
[6:24] So I went to West Pakistan first.
[6:40] And he was, and I put them in the district with Calcutta, India, which they wanted to be.
[6:48] So, of course, I was a fair bag boy.
[6:52] I had done what they wanted to do there.
[6:54] West Pakistan, of course, didn't like it, but later on they agreed that the facts of life, they can never be together again.
[7:02] But worldwide, our image is picked up.
[7:07] And as I say, your trips to China and to Russia definitely set down the feeling that America is no longer, you know.
[7:17] Of course, we still have a lot of problems.
[7:22] As long as the Vietnamese thing, we've got a peace agreement, but the North is not.
[7:47] Our prisoners are back in South Vietnam.
[7:49] South Vietnam.
[7:50] You have Rotary Clubs in South Vietnam?
[7:52] Oh, yes.
[7:53] They have a non-communist government.
[7:55] There are no Rotary Clubs in the communist country.
[7:57] That's true.
[7:58] We had them, of course, in the satellite.
[8:00] Sure.
[8:01] Before Poland, Czechoslovakia.
[8:04] That's the point.
[8:05] Just remember, that's one signal to me.
[8:08] As long as you've got Rotary Clubs in South Vietnam, South Vietnam, they were war-ridden quarters.
[8:19] The new clubs are south of Vietnam in the last year.
[8:23] They had a farm down there.
[8:24] Even with guns down there, they still have it over the age.
[8:27] And this is something I think is .
[8:32] Well, I can tell you, you have my best wishes.
[8:35] I remember speaking at your 50th anniversary.
[8:38] I was there.
[8:39] I saw you.
[8:40] I've spoken to the pigeons.
[8:43] I just had a great, great .
[8:45] I remember .
[8:48] Oh, yes.
[8:51] The, uh, I, uh, must say that, uh, uh, people sometimes sort of, you know, they sort of laugh, you know, they miss the intellectuals.
[9:04] Yes.
[9:04] They're all about what they call, uh, service gloves and all that good, and all that.
[9:13] They're joking and, and fighting and so forth and so on.
[9:16] But believe me, there's Americans at the top who realize you're an international president.
[9:22] But I was also sitting there, American?
[9:25] Oh yeah, it's so, it comes right from our soul.
[9:28] The idea of community action, voluntary action, good fellowship.
[9:33] And it's just good for a town to have a little bit of money.
[9:38] It's good for us.
[9:44] good cause, and your Rotary hands get together, and heroes do, and it changes the spirit of the town.
[9:51] And I think, I would say that about a lot of key ones.
[9:55] Oh, yes.
[9:55] The others, I just believe, voluntary organizations, it's something that is indicative to this country.
[10:04] And I'm glad you're spreading it.
[10:06] And I do
[10:23] change of rules somewhere that you could get in?
[10:27] Who does that?
[10:27] Well, we'd go in a moment if the government's with her.
[10:30] One interesting question I have, what's the future of Rotary?
[10:34] And I said, the future of Rotary is unlimited so long as men care for mankind.
[10:40] And this has been so true.
[10:42] When you will see groups of men in all parts of the world working with leopards and these underprivileged children.
[10:49] So we're getting through them.
[10:51] Just absolutely.
[10:52] I stood there, and Paul, Count Mundoon and Paul, go out into poverty.
[10:58] Now, we think we have some poverty in this country, but I've said many times, the poorest person in America, he's a millionaire, to what I saw.
[11:07] You know, people on welfare in the United States would be rich in the English of the world.
[11:12] Why, yes.
[11:12] You know that, Joe.
[11:14] India, Latin America, good heavens, our people on welfare, they're talking.
[11:28] Everybody else, you know, I mean, our guys, our people here, we just don't realize how lucky we are.
[11:35] I've said to the clubs that we are, wherever I've been, you ought to get out on your knees every night and thank your neighbor.
[11:42] I must go.
[11:42] Well, you know, our prisoners of war brought them home to us, haven't they, those magnificent men?
[11:48] They reminded us of the greatness of this country and its heroism.
[11:56] They're proud of us for treating them the way they've been treated, for the purpose of helping us.
[12:01] It really is something that makes me feel humble every time I see those guys talk.
[12:04] When I have seen some of the things in Bangladesh and Kathmandu, there, why, I just, you stand there and tears come out of your eyes.
[12:13] I see little children have never as much as had a brain aspirin for any, for vaccination and all that.
[12:21] How they survived.
[12:23] And here, this little club in Kathmandu,
[12:27] has gone out and established little clinics in areas of poverty.
[12:33] It's just something that really amazes me.
[12:36] Incidentally, I know your past bookmaster gentleman quite well, Red Blunt.
[12:42] Great guy.
[12:44] Sorry.
[12:45] John Spartan.
[12:46] I hope he's a good man.
[12:48] Sorry.
[12:49] Yes, it was not the year, because there
[12:53] And usually, being an Alabamian, basically you know very well if the Wallace Factor had a red could have won him, yes.
[13:01] But he couldn't deliver the Wallace Factor, and there's no way Wallace could have beaten Ford.
[13:07] For Charles, another thing, Mr. President, in the son's department, of course,
[13:22] Because, you see, the man who would succeed him was from Wisconsin.
[13:26] Oh, Robert.
[13:27] Yeah.
[13:27] Oh, if I'd been a banker, I'd have worked my tail off for him.
[13:31] Oh, he was a Democrat.
[13:31] Well, that's right.
[13:32] Well, this is Robert.
[13:33] This is Wildman.
[13:34] This is really what beat him to the red.
[13:37] Because now he's nowhere near the man who's always been a businessman.
[13:41] Oh, sure, he is.
[13:42] John's a good man.
[13:43] John Spartan.
[13:44] Well, you know what?
[13:45] He's a supporter.
[13:47] And he supported us very well.
[13:48] He's a good supporter.
[13:51] And I remember the same college fraternity, and so we've been very close together.
[13:56] Well, Alan is not a bad fellow.
[13:58] Who?
[13:59] Alan, Senator.
[14:00] Fine.
[14:00] Yeah, he's a big fellow.
[14:02] I've seen him quite often.
[14:04] He's a good fellow.
[14:05] I'll abandon one of my best friends, you know.
[14:08] Oh, you can't.
[14:09] Mississippi.
[14:10] Mississippi.
[14:49] President and the flag.
[14:51] President and the flag.
[14:54] Here it is.
[14:55] That's only for Presidents today.
[14:57] Thank you, Mr. President.
[15:00] I wish you the best.
[15:01] You are many supporters in our crediting to world peace.
[15:05] I'm going to Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, and to the convention.
[15:10] And I shall love your work, your rage, if you disagree with that.
[15:16] Or else I have a chance.
[15:17] I have been a hard worker to many Presidents.
[15:20] And let me say it, what we have to do is to learn this work and live together with different systems of government.
[15:26] We must not allow different systems of social and political systems to divide the people we're learning from.
[15:33] Rotary is tied and binds.
[15:35] Rotary ties every people regardless of the beliefs, regardless of the differences.
[15:39] Rotary brings people together.
[15:41] That's the greatest hope and that's the cement that will build the structure of peace