Office of the Historian

298. Transcript of a Telephone Conversation Between President Nixon and the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger)1

Washington, July 27, 1971, 7:20 p.m.

[Omitted here is discussion of India/Pakistan and China.]

P: Two or three guys—let me see, in what fields were they in—machine tools and the rest, were asking about the Mack truck deal.2 They think it is quite—

K: $165 million worth of it. We will hold it till Thursday3 so that I can tell Dobrynin personally and get some credit for you. It is better to release $100 million or so each month than to do it in one whack.

P: Certainly true of the Russians.

K: It will have an impact in industry. Checking where the countries were on the bids tomorrow. Gerry Ford …

P: Sure, sure. News coming out. Say we are working on—something will be developed. I didn’t realize the thing was so damn big.

K: $700 million. Actually it would help us a bit to warm up to the Russians so Peking doesn’t get too [omission in transcript].

P: It will be significant.

K: It is significant. More than we have approved in the last 2½ years.

P: That much now.

K: And than a little at a time. If they do something tremendous, we can announce the whole thing. But the public appearance just isn’t interested.

P: Just the business. The effect on the business community—they just want some hope. In a curious way they will tie this to China.

K: I talked to Dobrynin.4 We may get a separate accidental war agreement this summer.

P: This thing will be publicly announced.

K: Yes.

[Page 882]

P: Try to get it Friday night, it would be well to get it before the weekend.

K: We can do it just as soon as I talk to Dobrynin which is Thursday.

P: You don’t figure Berlin to win?

K: Think we might have Berlin this year too. You see what we settle with them, then the two Germanys have to settle access which will take probably another 3 months. The preliminary agreement will probably be by December.

[Omitted here is discussion of Agnew and China.]

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, Henry Kissinger Telephone Conversation Transcripts, Box 11, Chronological File. No classification marking.↩
  2. Earlier that evening, Nixon attended a White House reception for over 200 members of the American Society of Association Executives. (President’s Daily Diary; ibid., White House Central Files)↩
  3. July 29.↩
  4. See Document 297.↩