What do presidents talk about behind closed doors? If those
men were Richard Milhouse Nixon and Luis Echeverría
Alvarez, they most enjoyed discussing …themselves. They
were both powerful leaders with egos to match and, according
to tape recordings of two meetings they held in the White
House in June of 1972, each saw in the other a kindred spirit.
Normally, we would not be privy to the substance of their
conversations, and would have to be content with whatever
public account they later gave of the meetings. Nor would
we learn of Nixon's private feelings about Mexico and its
President, shared with aides and visitors before and after
he saw Echeverría. But while the two men talked, hidden
microphones surreptitiously recorded their every word: five
tiny devices hidden inside President Nixon's chair and two
more embedded in a nearby fireplace.
The microphones, along with devices installed in other key
offices as well as taps on White House telephones, had been
planted in 1971 by Secret Service technicians. They were there
at the suggestion of former President Lyndon Johnson (who
had recorded his own telephone calls when he occupied the
White House) in order to create an accurate record of the
presidency that historians could use for years afterwards.
But Nixon's obsession with secrecy prevented their public
release for decades after he left office in 1974. Nixon fought
throughout his lifetime to maintain control of the 3,700 hours
of tapes recorded during his tenure and it was not until 1999
that the National Archives began to open them chronologically.
Archivos Abiertos wanted to know what
the Nixon tapes could tell us about Mexico. Accordingly, we
listened to every conversation that mentioned Mexico or a
Mexican leader - portions of 169 tapes in all. The centerpiece
of the recordings lies in the encounters between Nixon and
Echeverría, on June 15 and 16, 1972. Those meetings
are discussed here. Transcripts of many of the most interesting
conversations and a few of the original recordings may be
found on this Web site.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Richard Nixon and Luis Echeverría shared a common
vision - and some common problems. Each considered himself
a true world leader, not merely a head of state. When they
met, Nixon was fresh from ground-breaking talks with the leaders
of China and the Soviet Union, meetings that led to the "opening"
of China and the first disarmament agreement between the United
States and the Soviets. Echeverría, who used foreign
policy during his sexenio as an actor uses the stage,
was at the start of a grand American tour, with stops scheduled
in cities that hosted large Mexican-American communities.
Before that he was in Latin America where he met with heads
of state, including Chile's President Salvador Allende. He,
too, would later travel to Peking and Moscow.
Both men were waging secret wars. In 1969, the Nixon administration
had begun the covert bombing of Cambodia, while Echeverría
fought a clandestine "dirty war" against his own
people. And each man wrestled with popular dissent - across
the United States, nation-wide protests were at a fever pitch
against the war in Vietnam, and in Mexico Echeverría
faced growing demands for democracy and justice.
It is clear from the tapes that Richard Nixon felt a great
affinity with Echeverría. He referred to him warmly
in a dozen different conversations with White House aides
as "bright, energetic," "a vigorous fellow,"
"a very attractive guy," and told his CIA Director
Richard Helms, "he's strong, he wants to play the right
games."
The two Presidents, speaking through a translator, barely
touched upon the bilateral issues that normally crop up between
the United States and Mexico, such as drugs, immigration or
trade. They were too busy talking about geopolitics. Echeverría
spent much of his time discussing communism's threat to the
region. Latin America was in imminent danger, he told Nixon,
beset by poverty and unemployment and bombarded by Soviet
propaganda touting Fidel Castro's Cuba as the answer to the
hemisphere's problems. The solution, he insisted, was private
capital. Echeverría urged Nixon to promote American
business investments in Mexico and the region.
Echeverría: Tell Mr. President that in the speech
that I will deliver to the joint session of Congress within
the hour, I will reiterate my principals of the Third World
vis-á-vis the great powers of the world. Because-
Nixon: [Interrupting] The Echeverría Doctrine.
Echeverría: Yes - because if I don't take this flag
in Latin America, Castro will. I am very conscious of this.
[Translator]
Echeverría: We in Mexico feel - and I sensed this also
when I was in Chile and it can be felt in Central America,
and among young people, among intellectuals - that Cuba is
a Soviet base in every sense of the word, both militarily
and ideologically, and that this is going on right under our
noses.
[Translator]
Echeverría: [. . .] We are also aware of the fact that
Dr. Castro and Cuba are instruments of penetration into the
United States itself, not to mention Mexico and the other
countries of Latin America. They are unceasing in their efforts,
using one path or another.
[Translator]
Echeverría: And I believe, Mr. President, that it's
obvious that with the large subsidies he receives [from the
Soviets] and his very deep complicity, he seeks to project
his influence into groups within the United States and Latin
America. And if we in Mexico do not adopt a progressive attitude
within a framework of freedom and of friendship with the United
States, this trend will grow. I have sensed this not only
in Latin America, but in certain groups within the United
States as well.
[Translator]
Echeverría: He has had no scruples whatsoever about
sacrificing his own country and eliminating all freedoms there
just to be a tool of Soviets; at this very moment he is making
a grand tour of many of the smaller socialist countries in
Eastern Europe.
[Translator]
Echeverría: And this poses a huge problem for all of
Latin America, in this time of population growth, unemployment
and social tensions aggravated by international communism.
That's why I believe that it is extremely important - and
this is something of great personal concern to me - that we
take their flags away from them by making real efforts to
cooperate at the highest levels of government, as well as
with private initiatives and technology.
Not only did the thrust of Cuba and the Soviet Union into
Latin America threaten the stability of the region - Echeverría
warned Nixon that it was already having an effect among leftist
organizations inside the United States. Echeverría
disclosed to Nixon that his aides had gathered intelligence
on U.S. groups planning to protest the Mexican government
in the American cities he would be traveling to.
Echeverría: This problem in Latin America is reflected
within American society itself in the Mexican-Americans and
Puerto Ricans and other racial minority groups. Therefore
either we find balanced economic solutions to these issues
or [the communists] will gain ground in Latin America and
that will have repercussions inside your own borders.
[Translator]
Echeverría: There is no doubt whatsoever that President
Nixon's meetings in China and Russia were great successes,
but at the same time anything that China and Russia can do
to cause problems, they will do - and in Latin America we
feel that directly. I have observed this in Mexico, I saw
it in Chile directly and in every Latin American country in
one form or another.
[Translator]
Nixon: Well I think that, ah - first, the President's analysis
is very perceptive about the problems of the hemisphere. And
second, I appreciate the fact that he is taking the lead -
speaking up not only for his own country, which of course
is his first responsibility […] - but he's taking the
lead in speaking up for the whole hemisphere. Because Mexico,
as he said earlier, provides not only the U.S. border with
Mexico but the U.S. border with all of Latin America. And
Mexico also, you could say, is the bridge - the bridge between
the United States and the rest of Latin America. I think for
the President of Mexico to take a leading role in speaking
about the problems of the hemisphere is very constructive.
[. . .]
[Translator]
Echeverría: When I was about to leave from Mexico for
this trip, Mr. President, I was informed by my various people
that groups of Mexicans had been in touch with friends of
Angela Davis [a well-known Black activist at the University
of California in Berkeley] in this country. And that we were
aware of the plans of the organization that Angela Davis heads
to mount a key demonstration in San Antonio protesting the
existence of political prisoners in Mexico. All of this is
connected to people in Chile, with people in Cuba, with the
so-called "Chicano" groups in the United States,
with certain groups in Berkeley, California - they're all
working closely together.
[Translator]
Echeverría: As soon as the plan existed that she would
go to San Antonio to a demonstration in protest of internal
affairs of Mexico with this idea of saying that "all
political prisoners in every country should be released,"
we were immediately informed.
[Translator]
Echeverría: They are working very actively - and again,
these events that take place in Latin America have repercussions
within the borders of the United States.
Nixon told Echeverría that he agreed in principle
that increased investment was crucial, but said that before
U.S. business would commit to Latin America, they needed to
be confident that countries could protect private enterprise
and ensure stability: "stability without the fear of
violent takeover or expropriation." He asked Echeverría
to carry that message to the leaders in the region, and to
warn the rest them of the perils of going down the path of
socialist Chile. By spreading the word about the dangers of
communism and the importance of private capital, Nixon said,
Echeverría would become the hemisphere's most important
leader.
Nixon: [. . .] I think one thing that would be very helpful
for the President to emphasize in his statements in Latin
America would be the fact that there is a responsibility to
provide stability in government, and some guarantee for the
protection of the right kind of private enterprise, such as
is the case in his country. Now this is a very delicate matter.
I do know this: nobody in the United States can say that because
then it looks as if we are interfering in Latin America and
trying to tell them what kind of government they should have.
On the other hand, I think if the President of Mexico speaks
out on this subject, […] he could simply say that [.
. .] he finds a readiness, a willingness of American private
enterprise to come in on a partnership basis to Latin America.
But there must be on the other side responsibility in governments
in the Latin American countries to provide stability for that
kind of investment.
[Translation into Spanish]
Nixon: For example, the President has been to Santiago. I
do not know President Allende, and I do not judge him, I don't
know what his plans for Chile may be in the future. But on
the other hand, as the President well knows, at the present
time all foreign capital is fleeing Chile, trying to get out.
And no new capital is coming in. Now that's their choice.
But if the Chilean experiment is repeated in varying degrees
in other Latin American countries, there's no chance that
the big corporations […] will put their money there.
Because there are other parts of the world - for example,
countries like Indonesia, Thailand, in Asia and countries
in Africa, even, where they think there's a better chance
for their investments to survive. What I am saying to the
President is not directed to his country. I'm using his country
as an example - if more countries in Latin America could follow
the example of Mexico, I think you'd see a tremendous boom
in investment from the United States and from Europe and Japan.
[…]
[Translation into Spanish]
Nixon: But I want to tell the President that […] he can
count on me to urge the American business community to invest
in Latin America. I think it's vitally important for the United
States that we not allow the Cuban tragedy to infect the rest
of the Caribbean and eventually the rest of Latin America.
And frankly, to be quite candid, I think it would be very
detrimental to all of us to have the Chilean experiment spread
through the rest of the continent. It will be a very unhealthy
hemisphere if that will be an element - the wave of the future.
[Translation into Spanish]
Nixon: I would also like to say one other thing to the President,
without treading on any of Mexico's traditional attitude toward
maintaining an independent policy. I think it's very helpful
that Mexico take a greater leadership role in the OAS in matters
like this. I am not thinking now that Mexico should take this
role as any agent of the United States. But I think that Mexico
is in an ideal position to do so. And otherwise the leadership
role will be taken by other leaders in the continent who cannot
speak as effectively as can the President of Mexico.
[Translation into Spanish]
Echeverría: Tell him that I agree with his analysis.
[Translator]
Nixon: In other words, let the voice of Echeverría
rather than the voice of Castro be the voice of Latin America.
But if Nixon liked the man, he was indifferent to the country
the man represented. The American President saw himself as
a protagonist in the great geopolitical questions of his day
- and Mexico was not one of them, as he told his chief of
staff, H.R. Haldeman, after his first meeting with Echeverría.
Nixon: After you've dealt in two summit meetings - one
in Peking and the other in Moscow - with major subjects, it
is really terribly difficult to deal with even a country as
important as Mexico. And frankly, for that matter, you could
say the same for the British, the French, the Italians and
the Germans. You know what I mean? There are certain countries
that matter in the world and certain countries that don't
matter in the world at the present time.
Despite Echeverría's plea for a "new American
partnership" with Latin America, U.S. policy toward Mexico
did not change perceptibly during the Nixon administration.
Indeed, the rhetoric of a new partnership has continued throughout
the present day, with few new results. Personalismo
did not translate into policy then, nor does it today.
Whatever Nixon may have thought of Mexico and its President,
Luis Echeverría - who completed his term in office
in December 1976 - outlasted his American counterpart. On
June 17, 1972, the day after the two leaders met for a second
time in the White House, five burglars were arrested breaking
into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the
Watergate apartment complex in downtown Washington.
It was the beginning of the end; Nixon's White House tapes
would later prove his downfall. He resigned in disgrace on
August 9, 1974.
Note: The
following transcripts are in PDF format.
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The audio clips featured below are Windows
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Transcripts
and Audio Clips
Transcript 1
May 6, 1971
10:28 - 10:58 am
Conversation No. 493-7
Cassette No. 585
Oval Office
President Richard Nixon meets with Clifford M. Hardin, Dr.
Norman E. Borlaug, Clark MacGregor, Harold Royce Gross and
Jack R. Miller. Dr. Borlaug - the principal speaker in this
excerpt - was Director of the National Wheat Program in Mexico,
winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and a pioneer of the so-called
"Green Revolution," a scientific movement to boost
crop yields in developing countries around the world. Borlaug
talks about problems in world food production, and the danger
Mexico faces due to its unchecked rise in population.
Transcript 2
May 13, 1971
Approx. 10:04 - 10:30 am
Conversation No. 498-3 (Click here
to listen to this clip)
Cassette No. 612
Oval Office
The President calls Mexico an excellent investment in a conversation
with Dr. Merlin K. DuVal ("Monty"), Assistant Secretary
of Health, and describes his personal views of Mexican people.
Transcript 3
June 2, 1971
4:38 pm - 5:42 pm
Conversation No. 510-5
Cassette No. 707
Oval Office
John B. Connally, Secretary of Treasury, tells the President
of his ambivalence about creating an economic union with Latin
America and Canada.
Transcript 4
June 4, 1971
12:22 pm - 1:15 pm
Conversation No. 512-16
Cassette No. 715
Oval Office
In a meeting with the President and Pennsylvania politician
Arlen Specter, Attorney General John N. Mitchell mentions
joint anti-narcotics programs in Mexico.
Transcript 5
June 4, 1971
1:18 pm - 1:42 pm
Conversation No. 512-18
Cassette No. 716
Oval Office
The President and his chief of staff, H.R. "Bob"
Haldeman, talk about the imminent trip by National Security
Advisor Henry Kissinger to China, commenting that Mexico is
unsafe.
Transcript 6
June 11, 1971
3:11 pm - 4:11 pm
Conversation No. 517-25
Cassette No. 743
Oval Office
The President meets John Ehrlichman, chief domestic policy
advisor to the White House, and discuss how to pressure countries
to curtail their drug trade by threatening to cut U.S. assistance.
Transcript 7
June 29, 1971
2:50 pm - unknown
Conversation No. 63-5
Cassette No. 59
Cabinet Room
In a meeting between the President and a group of U.S. businessmen,
labor leaders and economic policy advisors, an unidentified
labor leader complains about U.S. corporations moving to Mexico
for cheap labor.
Transcript 8
September 4, 1971
10:09 - 10:47 am
Conversation No. 567-9
Cassette Nos. 1082 and 1083
Oval Office
The President meets with Carlos Sanz de Santamaría,
Treasury Minister of Colombia, and NSC official Arnold Nachmanoff.
He calls Mexico, a relatively wealthy country in the hemisphere,
a better trading partner than the poorer Latin American nations.
Transcript 9
September 9, 1971
3:58 pm - 5:06 pm
Conversation No. 568-9
Cassette No. 1088
Oval Office
A conversation between the President, H.R. Haldeman and John
Connally begins with a discussion of the international economy.
Connally muses on long-term economic and trade strategy, suggesting
the United States should make alliances with Latin America,
Japan, Africa comparable to the European Economic Union in
order to gain a competitive edge.
Transcript 10
September 15, 1971
12:37 - 12:39 pm
Conversation No. 9-21
Cassette No. 1038
White House Telephone
Angry over a State Department statement on U.S. aid to undemocratic
governments, the President queries Alexander M. Haig, Jr.,
his deputy national security advisor, which nations in the
world can truly be called "democratic" and which
cannot.
Transcript 11
September 16, 1971
10:43 - 10:57 am
Conversation No. 278-51
Cassette No. 1063
Executive Office Building
Meeting with Henry Kissinger, the President continues his
discussion of U.S. assistance and democratic governments.
Mexico is not one of them, he points out.
Transcript 12
September 20, 1971
9:52 - 11:27 am
Conversation No. 576-8
Cassette No. 1126
Oval Office
John Connally talks with the President about the possibility
of lifting a ten percent surcharge - imposed on all imports
by the administration in August 1971 - for selected countries,
such as Canada and Mexico.
Transcript 13
September 20, 1971
Unknown time between 1:40 - 2:59 pm
Conversation No. 577-8
Cassette No. 1132
Oval Office
The President and Henry Kissinger discuss the international
economy, the International Monetary Fund and other related
matters. Nixon repeats to Kissinger his conversation with
Connally lifting the surcharge, but suggests keeping it for
Third World countries that aren't cooperating with American
interests.
Transcript 14
September 22, 1971
12:55 - 1:50 pm
Conversation No. 279-14
Cassette No. 1063
Executive Office Building
The President and H.R. Haldeman discuss a new presidential
appointee, Romana Acosta Banuelos, named by Nixon to be treasurer
of the United States. Banuelos is the first Mexican-American
woman to hold a senior government position. Nixon and Haldeman
approve of promoting Mexican-Americans; they are more grateful
than Blacks.
Transcript 15
October 5, 1971
8:56 - 9:02 am
Conversation No. 10-40
Cassette No. 1047
White House Telephone
President Nixon and Secretary of State Rogers discuss a possible
state visit to Latin America.
Transcript 16
October 7, 1971
10:32 - 10:58 am
Conversation No. 10-116 (Click here
to listen to this clip)
Cassette No. 1049 and 1050
White House Telephone
A conversation between the President and Daniel Patrick Moynihan
- then the U.S. representative to the United Nations - on
the ability of Blacks, Latin Americans, and others to lead
nations.
Transcript 17
October 17, 1971
6:13 - 6:26 pm
Conversation No. 11-105
Cassette No. 1166
White House Telephone
The President and William P. Rogers, Secretary of State,
discuss the impending United Nations vote on the "Important
Question": whether or not a simple majority of member
countries should be permitted to decide if Taiwan can retain
its seat in the General Assembly. (The United States wanted
to require a two-thirds majority in the vote.) The two men
wonder out loud whether or not they have a hope of convincing
Mexico to vote their way.
Transcript 18
October 20, 1971
9:28 am - 12:20 pm
Conversation No. 597-3
Cassette No. 1293
Oval Office
President Nixon and H.R. Haldeman talk about how little Congress
cares about Latin America.
Transcript 19
October 23, 1971
9:18 - 9:35 am
Conversation No. 601-6
Cassette No.1300
Oval Office
The President drafts his text with Haig in preparation for
a phone call to Mexican President Luis Echeverría about
the Important Question.
Transcript 20
October 23, 1971
Unknown time between 11:19 and 11:31 am
Conversation No. 12-103 (Click here
to listen to this clip)
Cassette No.1176
White House Telephone
The President talks with President Echeverría by phone
about the Important Question.
Transcript 21
October 25, 1971
12:20 - 12:31 pm
Conversation No. 12-111
Cassette No. 1176
White House Telephone
As U.S. lobbying efforts over the Important Question continues,
Rogers and Nixon talk about the UN vote and express annoyance
at Third World countries not voting with United States.
Transcript 22
October 25, 1971
3:01 - 3:11 pm
Conversation No. 12-116 (Click here
to listen to this clip)
Cassette No. 1177
White House Telephone
Rogers and Nixon talk again about efforts to sway the upcoming
UN vote on Taiwan, and the Secretary mentions the comments
he made to the Mexican foreign minister.
Transcript 23
October 25, 1971
7:27 - 7:34 pm
Conversation No. 12-126
Cassette No.1177
White House Telephone
Nixon tells Alexander Haig how Rogers has pressured the Mexicans
to vote with United States on the Important Question.
Transcript 24
October 29, 1971
Unknown time between 10:45 - 11:34 am
Conversation No. 13-36
Cassette No. 1180
White House Telephone
Richard Nixon and Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor of New
York and the author of an influential 1969 report to the President
on Latin America, discuss lifting the ten percent import surcharge
for Latin American countries.
Transcript 25
March 27, 1972
7:51 - 8:04 pm
Conversation No. 22-34
Cassette No.1820
White House Telephone
The President and Henry Kissinger discuss ideas for a trip
by President Echeverría to the United States. Nixon
calls Echeverría a very attractive guy.
Transcript 26
June 14, 1972
9:00 - 10:04 am
Conversation No. 733-2
Cassette No. 2238
Oval Office
The President and H.R. Haldeman discussed the imminent arrival
of President Luis Echeverría Alvarez.
Transcript 27
June 15, 1972
10:31 am - 12:10 pm
Conversation No. 735-1 (Audio: Part
1 - Part 2 - Part
3 - Part 4)
Cassette Nos. 2246-2248
Oval Office
This is the recorded conversation of the first meeting held
between President Nixon and President Echeverría. Also
in the room are Alexander Haig and translator Donald F. Barnes.
After a long discussion of the salinity problems of the Colorado
River water flowing into Mexico, Echeverría and Nixon
spend most of their time together discussing the spread of
communism in the hemisphere. The Mexican President insists
that the only way to combat the subversive activities of Fidel
Castro and the attraction of Chilean President Salvador Allende
is with increased private investment from the United States
into Latin America. Nixon counters that the only way to promote
increased investments is through "stability," and
cautions Echeverría that American business fears the
growing trend toward nationalist economic policies in the
region and the accompanying threat of expropriation.
Transcript 28
June 15, 1972
3:47 - 5:25 pm
Conversation No. 736-1
Cassette No. 2252
Oval Office
Nixon and Haldeman talk about table arrangements for that
evening's State dinner with Echeverría, whom Nixon
calls "an awfully nice guy."
Transcript 29
June 15, 1972
5:25 - 6:43 pm
Conversation No. 736-2 (Click here
to listen to this clip)
Cassette No. 2253
Oval Office
Still talking with Haldeman, Nixon complains about how hard
it is to focus on the interests of a country like Mexico after
meetings in Peking and Moscow, where he discussed the pressing
affairs of the world.
Transcript 30
June 16, 1972
11:22 am - 12:26 pm
Conversation No. 737-4 (Audio: Part
1 - Part 2)
Cassette Nos. 2255-2257
Oval Office
The President meets for a second time with President Echeverría,
and talks at length about the significance of his summit meetings
in Chin and the Soviet Union. Also present are Mexican Foreign
Minister Emilio Rabasa Mishkin, Alexander Haig and translator
Donald F. Barnes.
Transcript 31
June 16, 1972
12:30 - 12:33 pm
Conversation No. 25-71 (Click here
to listen to this clip)
Cassette No. 2176
White House Telephone
The President talks with CIA Director Richard M. Helms about
Helms's upcoming meeting with Echeverría.
Transcript 32
June 21, 1972
10:40 am - 12:30 pm
Conversation No 739-6
Cassette No. 2263
Oval Office
Conversation with Arthur Burns, chairman of the Federal Reserve
Board, about what Burns should be prepared to discuss with
foreign leaders during his upcoming trip to Latin America.
