On June 16, 1972, President Nixon talked with
CIA Director Richard M. Helms on a White House telephone
just after Nixon met with the Mexican leader. The
conversation offers a tantalizing (and censored)
glimpse of the CIA's interest in Mexico.
Nixon: Hello.
[Secretary]: Director Helms, Mr. President.
Nixon: Hello.
Helms: Good morning, Mr. President.
Nixon: Dick, I just left President Echeverría.
He took me aside, you know he doesn't speak any
English but - he says, I'm seeing Director Helms
this afternoon. I said, "Good." I said,
"He's - you can, uh - you know - I - he has
authorized it directly to you from me."
Helms: Right.
Nixon: So you should tell him that I talked
to you, and so forth. I don't know what games we're
playing there, but… He's strong - he wants
to play the right games. I had told him, I gave
him a little fill-in on Russia and China, I said,
now we've had all these initiatives but let me make
one thing clear. I have no reason to believe but
that both nations are going to continue their support
of subversion in other countries. I said, that's
just - I said, we have agreed on no overt confrontations,
in effect, but I said this is what you've got to
expect and I think - So that's the way I sorted
it - I - We didn't go into any of the other domestic
things he has, but ah -
Helms: Well thank you very much, sir. Dick
[Vernon A.] Walters [Deputy Director of Central
Intelligence] is going with me and we're going to
have about an hour's chat with him. I-
[Section removed for national security reasons]
Nixon: Because I went into the - why we
had to finish Vietnam in the right way, why it was
important for us to hold the ring against aggression
on all over the world, particularly in the western
hemisphere, because nobody else was there to do
it. And, ah - he's on our side, all right.
Helms: Oh that's great, Mr. President, thank
you very much.
Nixon: All right, bye.
