President Richard Nixon∇: Yeah?
Patrick J. Buchanan∇: Yes, sir.
President Nixon: The other thing I was going to mention—I forgot to mention—is how really amusing it is these doves are so thrown off balance by this China thing.
Buchanan: Yeah.
President Nixon: They're really in a titter.
Buchanan: Oh, sure.
President Nixon: Yeah, you know, they [unclear] a little old blip like that, you know and then they're off and they really don't know what to do – that's one they don't know how to handle isn't it?
Buchanan: That's right, that's right.
President Nixon: For sure.
Buchanan: Well they're ecstatic over the initiative of course—they just, I mean—very euphoric about the whole thing, and at the same time they are going to have to sort of give you credit for doing it. Presents a [little] bit of a problem.
President Nixon: Yeah, because nobody else did it.
Buchanan: That's right, that's right.
President Nixon: And also it was good that [Emmett] Dedmon asked the question because it allowed me to point out that I had said it two years ago, said it in an editorial conference, referred to it in an article in Foreign Affairs.1 That it was not something you just – and at the same time of course, I as you know dodged the issue of recognition -
Buchanan: Right.
President Nixon: —by the UN∇ [United Nations]—
Buchanan: Right.
President Nixon: —which was very important. [Say], you know, we're not going to go too fast, boys.
Buchanan: Yeah.
President Nixon: Because we've got other friends too. We don't want to let down Taiwan and uh—too hard.
Buchanan: Right.
President Nixon: And we won't. I just – I think that they're uh—think that what is really interesting on the China thing is the way that it forces the liberal press to get off of Vietnam for a while. Doesn't it?
Buchanan: Mm-hmm. It does. It wiped it right off the front pages, you know.
President Nixon: At least for a while.
Buchanan: Mm-hmm.
President Nixon: Yeah. Well, we'll see what they do next week with it. OK..
Buchanan: OK.. Yes, sir.
1 Emmett Dedmon was at the Chicago Sun Times. (↑)