Secret White House Tapes

249–26

About this recording

249–26
  • President Richard M. Nixon
  • H. R. Haldeman
  • Stephen B. Bull
  • Robert D. Murphy
  • Henry A. Kissinger
  • White House photographer
April 15, 1971
Conversation No. 249-26

Date: April 15, 1971
Time: 5:25 pm - 6:20 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman

Look magazine story
-Feature story
-Presidency
-Herbert G. Klein
-Unknown columnist [Christopher S. Wren?]
-Anecdotes
-Haldeman’s sources
-Wedding story
-Timing

James J. Kilpatrick, Jr.’s column
-Haldeman’s possible call to Kilpatrick
29

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 9/08)



-Opinion Research Corporation [ORC] poll
-George H. Gallup poll
-Joseph W. and Stewart J. O. Alsop
-Possible distribution
-Staff
-News summary
-Linwood Holton
-Governors Conv. No. 249-22 (cont.)
-Congress
-Klein
-John W. Rollins

People’s Republic of China [PRC] initiative
-Reaction of intellectuals
-Vietnam
-Media coverage
-Henry A. Kissinger
-Harvard University faculty

Opponents
-Maoists
-Ho Chi Minh and Mao Tse-tung
-Possible violence
-Media coverage
-November [1969?] demonstrations
-Psychology of demonstrators
-Cambodia
-May 1970 demonstrations
-Press conference

Polls
-Patrick J. Buchanan’s forthcoming call to Liv Kilborne [sp?]
-Gallup and ORC
-Figures
-Vietnam War

Lieutenant William L. Calley, Jr.
-Conservatives
-James L. Buckley
-Walter H. Judd

Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 5:25 pm
30

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 9/08)




President’s schedule

Bull left at an unknown time before 5:38 pm

Conservatives
-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
-Vietnam Conv. No. 249-26 (cont.)

President’s meeting with editors
-Klein
-Charles W. Colson
-Klein
-Clark MacGregor

Haldeman left and Robert D. Murphy and Kissinger entered at 5:38 pm; the White House
photographer was present at the beginning of the meeting

Greetings

Official photograph

Murphy’s trip to Taiwan
-Timing
-Chow Shu-kai
-State Department
-American ambassador Walter P. McConaughy
-United Nations [UN] General Assembly vote
-Evaluation
-Taiwan
-Colonel William R. Usher
-Need for secrecy
-Message for Chiang Kai-shek
-Possible new policy
-”Two Chinas”
-USSR
-PRC/Taiwan
-Special circumstances
-President’s PRC initiative
-”Overseas Chinese”
-Concerns
-Ping-pong team
31

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 9/08)



-Possible recognition of PRC
-State Department’s views
-Effects on United States’ Asian allies
-United States’ commitments to Taiwan
-Arms
-Trade
-Textiles
-UN Conv. No. 249-26 (cont.)
-President’s attachment to Taiwan
-Murphy’s role
-Cabinet position
-National Security Council [NSC] meeting
-UN
-Senate and the military
-UN
-Security Council
-”Two China” possibility
-United States’ policy
-Delay
-Department of State position
-Need for leadership
-PRC/Taiwan
-State Department
-Marshall Green’s argument
-PRC entry into UN
-PRC opinion on Vietnam
-Chou En-lai
-Laos


******************************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[National Security]
[Duration: 59s ]


FOREIGN AFFAIRS


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
32

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 9/08)



******************************************************************************


-Mao
-Laos
-USSR
-Mao’s statement
-Vietnam Conv. No. 249-26 (cont.)
-Taiwan
-PRC
-Mood


******************************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[National Security]
[Duration: 1m 13s ]


FOREIGN AFFAIRS


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

******************************************************************************


-Murphy’s experiences in 1945
-Berlin
-President’s meeting with Nikita S. Khrushchev in 1959
-Sino-Soviet border
-Importance of Murphy’s mission
-Message for Chiang Kai-shek
-Effects on United States’ Asian allies
-Taiwan
-Importance
-Exports
-Need for a flexible policy
-UN
-Possible reaction in Congress
-Military assistance
33

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 9/08)



-President’s message for Chiang Kai-shek
-Democrats
-Senate
-Reaction to President’s PRC initiative
-Public
-”Hawks”
-Congress
-Glassboro summit Conv. No. 249-26 (cont.)
-Polls
-Peace movement
-State Department
-Green
-USSR
-President’s trip to Romania
-Unknown person’s opposition to PRC initiative
-Reasons for President’s PRC initiative
-Chiang Kai-shek
-Travel arrangements
-PRC
-Chou En-lai
-Instructions for talking to Green
-Murphy’s possible conversation with Green
-William P. Rogers
-Need for secrecy
-Report to President
-Rogers and Green
-State Department
-Memorandum on UN
-George H. W. Bush
-President’s policies
-PRC
-Chou En-lai
-President’s instructions for McConaughy
-Kissinger’s possible instructions to McConaughy
-Need for secrecy
-McConaughy
-Franklin D. Roosevelt’s conversation with Murphy regarding North African
operation
-Rogers’ views toward mission
-Importance of PRC/Taiwan

Murphy left at 6:10 pm
34

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 9/08)




PRC/Taiwan policy
-Possible consequences of President’s initiative

Lyndon B. Johnson
-Problems with Vietnam War
-Polls
-Figures Conv. No. 249-26 (cont.)
-Fluctuations in support
-Glassboro summit

United States’ policy
-Murphy
-Glassboro meeting

Summit meeting
-PRC
-Kissinger’s conversation with [Name unintelligible]
-Negotiations
-Timing

Vietnam
-Prisoner of War [POW] wives and POW issue
-Possible North Vietnamese moves
-Difficulties
-Anatoliy F. Dobrynin
-Instructions for Kissinger
-United States’ policy
-Troop withdrawals
-[Forename unknown] Fentris [sp?]

USSR
-Kissinger’s conversation with Peter G. Peterson
-United States-PRC relations
-United States’ position in the world
-Reaction
-Kissinger’s conversation with Dobrynin
-Peterson’s meeting on trade
-PRC initiative

Kissinger left at 6:20 pm
35

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 9/08)
Secret White House Tapes |

249–26

This recording is currently not available on millercenter.org. To listen to it, please email Mike Greco at mdg4u@virginia.edu

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