When the 200th anniversary of the White House was celebrated last week, a dinner parade of presidents featured Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George Bush (the Elder) but not the ailing Ronald Reagan.
And as the bizarre coincidence of a ballot-counting drama unfolded involving George Bush (the Junior), it was too bad that the very deceased Richard Nixon wasn’t around. He would have been a television fixture, opining on why he didn’t contest John Kennedy’s razor-thin margin in 1960–and likely avoiding Republican hanky-panky, like in Downstate Illinois.
But if you missed the deceased and ailing presidents, they are oddly reunited in the National Archives in a previously undisclosed Nixon tape recording. And a curious one it is.
It’s a 12-minute telephone conversation at 11:13 a.m. EST on the morning of Oct. 26, 1971. Reagan is the very formidable governor of California, bastion of the conservative wing of GOP, and someone of whom Nixon is clearly wary.
The topic of the day is a historic United Nations vote the day before to seat Mao Tse-tung’s China and boot Taiwan after 26 years in the world body. It was a big defeat for the U.S. and our two-China policy.
And Reagan, being Reagan, was none too happy. And he had an idea for Nixon, who was surely rolling his eyes midway through the conversation. The idea turned out to involve our UN ambassador, George Bush.
Nixon: Hope I didn’t get you out of bed.
Reagan: No, although I am still trying to sleep on Oriental time, and it’s not working very well.
Nixon: Well, that was a bad vote, wasn’t it?
Reagan: Well, I wanna tell you.
Nixon: We worked our tails off, I must say.
Reagan: I was just sick.
Nixon: 54 to 59 [reference to a key procedural vote the U.S. lost, actually 55 to 59]. I tell you, I just finished a meeting with [Vice President] Ted Agnew. He has just gotten back from Greece. And Turkey. Both of whom we got incidentally. We didn’t get Iran, dammit. You figure there’s the shah. We’ve done all the things for him. And these African countries, they’re the ones that, I must say, are disappointing.
Reagan: Well, Mr. President, the reason I called was I know it’s not easy to give a suggestion or advice to the president of the United States. But I just feel so strongly that we can’t . . . we just can’t sit and take this and continue as if nothing had happened. And I had a suggestion for an action that I would like to be so presumptuous to suggest. Ah, my every instinct says get the hell out of that kangaroo court and let it sink.
Nixon: Hahaha [totally artificial guffaw].
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Reagan: But I know it would be extremely difficult and not the thing to do. But it has occurred to me that the United States, the people, well, they just don’t like the UN to begin with. If you brought Mr. Bush back to Washington to make them sweat for about 24 hours as to what you were thinking of, then if you went on television to the people of the United States and said that Mr. Bush was going back to the UN to participate in debates, discussion, and present our views and so forth, but he would not participate in any votes. That the United States would not vote and not be bound by the votes of the UN. Because it is a debating society. You don’t have to say that. So we’d be there, our presence would be there, but we would just not participate in their votes. I think it would put those bums in the perspective they belong.
Nixon: [Laughs, even more artificially.] It sure would!
Reagan: I think it would make a helluva campaign issue because I am positive that the people of the United States are thoroughly disgusted. And this would put any candidate from the other side, the constant question would come to him, what would you do now? And if he were stupid enough to open his mouth and say, oh, hell we’d go right back to operating as usual, I think he would be hung out to dry.
Nixon: Hmmmm. We’ve been trying to think here about what, ah, the action to be. I must say the congressional action may be very interesting. On the appropriations side . . . .
Reagan: If they did what they threaten to do, they would simply be confirming your action. They’d be making the budget meet that new position of the United States in the UN. The other way, if we do nothing, and they take that action, it’s a rebuff.
Nixon: Yeah. (long pause) . . . let me give some thought to the whole thing. It’s a tough one, as you’re well-aware. We have some fish to fry on India-Pakistan. We’re trying to avoid a war there [unsuccessfully, it turned out], and the UN may have to play some damn role there. `Cause we don’t want to get involved in that miserable place. It’s a, uh, but, uh, we will, let me give some thought to this whole thing. As you know, I have been thinking about this whole thing. Just this morning, I talked to two, three people about it. Ah, what the legal problems are, and so forth.
Reagan: I just felt I had to make this suggestion.
Nixon: I know. I appreciate it.
Reagan: Last night, the night after that announcement came out, one commentator called me.
Nixon: Yeah.
Reagan: And I told him I just think it confirms the moral bankruptcy of the organization, the UN.
Nixon: [Forced laugh]
Reagan: And he told me that the phone was ringing off the wall, with people who are just enraged. Here are the last of the Big Four…the old boy [Taiwan’s Chiang Kai-shek], we had a wonderful audience with him while we were there.
Nixon: Yeah, yeah, a remarkable man. You must have really enjoyed. He’s such an amazing man. How old is he now?
Reagan: In his ’80s.
Nixon: You’d never know it.
Reagan: Sharp as a tack. And he and the Madame [Chiang’s wife] translating.
Nixon strains to appease Reagan, talking about all the phone calls made on the issue: “In fact, I made telephone calls to the four capitals on this myself. Got two of them and two to abstain.”
“Last night to watch that thing on television, as I did, to see that . . . ,” Reagan starts saying.
“The tail wags the dog there, doesn’t it,” says Nixon.
Reagan pleads that Nixon “give some thought to this. I think it would be very dramatic. If the United States just continues business as usual in the UN with this, I just think our people are going to be terribly disappointed. Here’s a chance for Uncle Sam to slap their wrists. We can express our views and debate. But it is just not important enough for us to vote on issues and be bound. Naturally if we do that we are not bound by the vote.”
Nixon again tries to deflect him: “Yeah, I get it. Uh, hum, I’m telling you, it was a hard night here. We were on the phone up to the last minute.”
Reagan, though, keeps harping on the same subject, praising himself for calling the UN action “immoral political expediency.”
Nixon then interjects, “Well, when did you get back?”
Reagan says Saturday morning, and Nixon responds, “Exciting part of the world.” But Reagan is unrelenting and notes how he had signed a proclamation for United Nations Week. “And if it still isn’t over, I’m going to withdraw the proclamation.”
“I probably signed it too,” says Nixon as the chat finally draws to a close.
Well, a few minutes later, Nixon is on the phone with Secretary of State William Rogers and brings up the Reagan call. Nixon calls Reagan’s idea “ridiculous” and Rogers agrees. “We can’t do that!”
“Of course, Bill, that’s like getting out of the UN. As you know, he’s [Reagan] pretty far on the [John] Birch [Society] kick. What do you think? Would it do any good to call him?”
They decide Rogers will call Reagan and basically throw him a line, all told to him “in confidence,” about Nixon maneuvering on the subject.
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“Do your best,” Nixon counsels. Tell Reagan, he says, that right after his call with Nixon, the administration decided to draft a statement, condemning the vote.
Which, of course, was a crock, but another example of Trickie Dickie as pretty smart dude.
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James Warren and Michael Tackett of the Tribune’s Washington bureau are hosts of “Unconventional Wisdom” at 7:05 p.m. Sunday on WGN-AM 720.