15c - Nixon & Kissinger, Dealing with the Soviets

Nixon tape conversation 41-43

Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger

June 22, 1973

1:51 p.m.

Song: Bloc Party, “The Pioneers (M83 Remix)”

Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was stateside from June 18-24 in 1973 for meetings with President Nixon. Brezhnev’s visit occurred a month after the Watergate Committee began televising their hearings, though these were paused in the interests of diplomacy for Brezhnev’s visit.

This is the final telephone conversation between Kissinger and Nixon recorded; Nixon ordered the taping system to be disconnected a month later on July 18 after Alexander Butterfield revealed the system’s existence to the Watergate Committee on July 16.

Butterfield's revelation was fatal to Nixon's presidency and is ultimately responsible for these tapes becoming public.

Nixon opens by commenting on Kissinger “unfortunately” not being on stage with himself and Brezhnev. Nixon and Kissinger were notoriously jealous of each other’s media attention.

Note Nixon’s slip calling it a “treaty” as opposed to an “agreement,” which would require congressional authorization.

They dump on Secretary of State Bill Rogers, who was sidelined for Nixon’s entire presidency by Kissinger in his role as National Security Advisor. Kissinger would later take over Rogers’ role while retaining his own.

“Every war is started by breaking a treaty.”

With growing risk that he’ll have to resign the presidency, Nixon clings to the notion his personal relationship with Brezhnev is vital to keeping the U.S. and U.S.S.R. out of nuclear war.

Nixon and Kissinger enjoyed boosting their own accomplishments, but these agreements weren’t terribly significant. In RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Nixon describes them as “better than nothing” (p. 880-881). The Soviets wanted a treaty on the complete nonuse of nuclear weapons, Nixon thought that would “prevent, or at least inhibit, us from using nuclear weapons in defense of our allies or of our own vital interests,” an admittedly a fair interpretation of the word “nonuse.”