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Press Conference of Richard B. Cheney, Brent Scowcroft, Michael Duval, and Stuart Spencer
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Press Conference of Richard B. Cheney, Brent Scowcroft, Michael Duval, and Stuart Spencer
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Digitized from Box 32 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 6, 1976
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
(San Francisco, California)
THE WHITE HOUSE
PRESS CONFERENCE
OF
RICHARD B. CHENEY
ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT
GENERAL BRENT SCOWCROFT
ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT
FOR NATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRS
MICHAEL DUVAL
SPECIAL COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT
AND
STUART SPENCER
DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE PFC
THE HOLIDAY INN
9:15 P.M. PDT
MR. CHENEY: We would be happy to respond to any
questions you might have by way of obvious focus on the
debates tonight.
Q
Are there Soviet troops in Poland?
GENERAL SCOWCROFT: Yes.
Q
How many would you say?
GENERAL SCOWCROFT: Offhand, I don't recall. There
are four divisions. I am not sure, but a substantial number.
Q
Do you think that would imply some Soviet
dominance to Poland?
GENERAL SCOWCROFT: I think what the President
was trying to say is that we do not recognize Soviet dominance
of Europe and that he took his trip to Eastern Europe -- to
Poland, to Romania, to Yugoslavia -- to demonstrate, to
symbolize their independence, and their freedom of maneuver.
Q
Do you think he succeeded in saying what
you just said he said? He said Poland was free, at one
point during that answer.
MR. CHENEY: I think the point, Lou, was the
President was focusing on the fact we want separate
independent relationships with each of those nations, and
that was the purpose of his travels. I think you would
get a similar statement, I would assume, from some of
those governments and that his policy of his Administration
is that we are interested in separate, independent autonomous
relationships with governments like Yugoslavia, Romania and
Poland.
MORE
- 2 -
Q
Did he misspeak himself? Is that what you
are saying?
MR. CHENEY: I would have to go back and check the
transcript, Bob, but I think you have to look at it within
the context of the allegation that was made, that somehow
this Administration recognizes or has sanctioned the
charge or wants a relationship based on the assumption of
dominance and we don't assume that. We want a separate
independent relationship with each of those countries.
Q
But he did misspeak himself. That is fair
enough to say, isn't it?
GENERAL SCOWCROFT: I think you have to look at
the transcript.
Q We got his quote.
GENERAL SCOWCROFT: That is clearly what he was
getting at.
Q
He said the U.S. does not concede Eastern
Europe itself independent under the domination of the
Soviet Union.
GENERAL SCOWCROFT: He does not concede the
domination of Eastern Europe. That is what he took the
trip for -- to demonstrate, to symbolize the independence
of those countries. He did not concede --
Q
Are there Soviet troops in Romania, too?
GENERAL SCOWCROFT: No.
Q
If we have this many questions about it, do
you think President Ford got his point across to the
audience? Why wasn't he able to make this clear?
MR. CHENEY: I felt it was very clear, Ann, as
I watched it. I understood exactly what he was saying, and
I think the American people will understand exactly what he
was saying, too.
Q
Do you think it was a political plus for you,
that particular comment?
MR. CHENEY: I think the overall debate was a
definite plus from the standpoint of the American people's
understanding of the President's beliefs and his record
with respect to foreign policy. I thought the closing statement
went right to the heart, at the bottom line, if you will,
of the debates, and that all things considered in the final
analysis the key fact the American people have to judge
is whether or not a potential candidate for the Presidency
has the experience and the knowledge and the understanding
to be able to provide peace and freedom, and that the President
went to the heart of the issue with respect to foreign policy
in the campaign when he was able to point out that, after
two years, we do in fact have peace and that not a single
American is fighting anywhere in the world tonight.
MORE
- 3 -
Q
Is he going to put out the names of these
companies from here or is that going to be the Commerce
Department?
MR. CHENEY: We have been working for the last
several days -- the last several weeks, really -- on an
Executive Order, as I understand it, which would mandate
the Commerce Department under the action he had previously
enacted in 1975 to provide public access to the names
of companies involved in the Arab embargo.
Q
Did the President go one step further and
say he will order the Commerce Department to make them public
so the public does not have to go searching for them, but
they will be told?
MR. CHENEY: That is correct.
Q
When can we expect that?
MR. CHENEY: I expect you will have a fact sheet
on it tomorrow.
Q
When did the Administration change its
position on it?
MR. CHENEY: We never changed our position on it.
Q
Didn't you oppose legislation on the Hill
to this effect?
GENERAL SCOWCROFT: No. As a matter of fact, we
proposed that as a way in which to move the legislation
through the Congress.
Q
But initially didn't the Administration
this year oppose any change in the boycott law?
MR. DUVAL: No, the compromise proposed by the
Administration and the Congress would have done that, would
have gotten the kind of proposal through in law that the
President announced tonight. What the President indicated
as a problem with the legislation was legislation that had
in it a criminal sanction which was totally unenforceable.
The Democrats in Congress proposed a criminalization
law which would have required us to get evidence from
foreign countries which we never could have gotten, and
therefore would not have been enforceable. What the
President wanted was a law that was enforceable.
Q What was Mr. Parsky's testimony -- was it
on the Bingham proposal, on the boycott proposal?
MR. DUVAL: That was two separate --
Q
What was Parsky's testimony on the boycott
proposal?
MORE
& 4 -
GENERAL SCOWCROFT: Parsky testified in opposition
to the Bingham-Rosenthal amendment. The Administration
was opposed to the Bingham-Rosenthal amendment.
Q Did Mr. Ford seem to be taking credit for
signing this tax bill which provided for the tax sanctions
against those companies that complied with the Arab boycott?
MR. CHENEY: He did in fact sign the tax bill,
did he not?
Q He did.
MR. CHENEY: And that was a key provision of the
tax bill and the Administration had no objections to that
provision of the tax bill. We went along with that. It is
a separate issue.
Q Can I ask Mike Duval a question? We have
been hearing rumblings and rumblings that your side will
propose some sort of an amendment to the rules for the
third debate "to force Carter" to be more responsive to
questions in the debate. Can you give us some idea as to
what you are going to propose?
MR. DUVAL: We are on the Nessen amendment. I
think the point, as I understood it from talking to Ron --
and he raised a good point -- the format is intended to allow
a structured and a disciplined approach to serious subjects.
You ask a question. We anticipated that the American people
would get an answer to the question asked and that the
rebuttal would be on that topic. So that you did not have
mini-speeches in this debate, where people go in with
memorized speeches and give them.
The President answered every single question he
was asked. In his rebuttal he referred to the points raised
by Mr. Carter. And what I think we would like to see
continue in these debates is both men be responsive to
the questions that the reporters posed and in the rebuttals
be responsive to the points made by their opponent.
Q Don't you want a moderator with a little
more backbone, then? Isn't that what you are saying?
MR. DUVAL: The point is, the men themselves
should do that because that is in the interest of the people
that are listening to the debates trying to make up their
mind. I think if you go back through the transcripts
you will find the President always answered the question
he was asked.
Q Mike, is this something you are going to
propose to the Carter people, that their candidate be
required to stick to the subject?
MORE
- 5 -
MR. DUVAL: I don't know, Fred. I am not certain
it would be enforceable. I think common courtesy and a sense
of wanting to be responsive to the people who are listening
to the debates would make Mr. Carter - or at least would
be a strong inducement on Mr. Carter -- to answer the question
he has been asked. It seems to me it is not particularly
fair nor leveling with the American people to avoid the
questions you are asked.
Q Mike, when you thought you won the first
debate, you opposed any changes in the format. Is this a
sign you feel you did not do as well?
MR. DUVAL: No. As I said earlier tonight, I think
in the first debate the President hit a triple. I think
tonight he hit a home run. I am not sure what is left to do
at the third debate.
Q
Can we return to the four divisions in Poland?
Does that not amount to dominance in that country?
GENERAL SCOWCROFT: I think the point is the President
was saying we do not concede Soviet domination of Eastern
Europe and that we are working in every way to demonstrate,
to symbolize the freedom, independence, of the countries
of Eastern Europe.
Q
Let me read you the White House transcript:
"There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there
never will be, under the Ford Administration."
Q
Does domination now exist?
GENERAL SCOWCROFT: I think the point is, he was
trying to say that we do not concede the domination of Eastern
Europe. That is the whole context within which he made
that answer.
MORE
- 6 -
Q
He said, "I don't believe the Poles
consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union." Is
that a valid statement?
GENERAL SCOWCROFT: I think that is another
element of it. In the sense of the acquiscence of the
people of Eastern Europe there is no domination at
all. Not that we don't concede it. There is none.
Q
Two weeks ago at this hour, approximately,
you had some preliminary polls indicating what public
sentiment had been in reaction to the debate. Do you
have anything similar tonight?
MR. CHENEY: I have not seen any yet, frankly.
I don't know whether any organizations are polling
tonight like they did at the first debate. Maybe somebody
else can answer.
Q
For the last debate you gave sort of a
round-by-round score of how you thought it went, and I
think yours was something like eight to two to two.
There were 14 questions tonight. How would you score it?
MR. CHENEY: Nine and five.
Q Stu, how would you score it?
MR. SPENOER: Nine and five, for the President,
obviously.
MR. CHENEY: For the President.
Q Mike, how would you score it?
MR. DUVAL: I am going to disagree with my
Chief of Staff. I would score it 14 to zip.
Q
Dick,didn't you say a couple of weeks ago
by about now you thought the President would be leading
in the polls?
MR. CHENEY: I think I said two weeks ago, Bob,
when we talked in Philadelphia, I projected within two
weeks we would have a national poll that would show us
being even or ahead -- as I recall the specific language --
and I would point to the Yankelovich poll, Time Magazine,
as an indication that we have in fact achieved what I
said we would two weeks ago.
MORE
- 7 -
Q
What did the President say after the
debate to you when you got back to the residence about
how well he did?
MR. CHENEY: I rode back from the debate with
him to the residence and he felt -- we discussed it in
the course of the ride -- he said he felt much better
after this debate than after the first.
Q
Why?
MR. CHENEY: He felt very comfortable. He
felt it had gone very well. I did not ask him in detail
why, Helen. In my view it was a matter that tonight
after the debate I don't think we know any more about
Jimmy Carter's positions or policies or what policies
he would pursue in the national security area, both with
respect to defense and foreign policy, than we did
when we turned on the television tonight.
I was, I guess, disappointed in the sense I had
hoped that you would have a clear-cut distinction in the
sense that Governor Carter would stand by the positions he
had taken previously and that there would in fact be
more portrayed to the American people for them in fact to
make a choice, observing a difference in the approach of
the two candidates to national security matters.
I did not see that tonight because I thought
Governor Carter never really did address the substance
of the questions he was asked. I point specifically
to the first question that dealt with the issue of
whether or not he took issue with strategic arms
limitation, the opening to China, our work in the Middle
East or our work in Africa, and he never did at any
course, at any point during the course of the debates
tonight, address any one of these issues in terms of
saying he would pursue a different set of policies.
From that standpoint I felt as I watched the
debates, Helen, there was no question in my mind that
the public watching the debates would feel that the
President did in fact have a two-year track record, knew
what he was doing with respect to SALT, knew what he
was doing in South Africa, our relationships with China,
our relations with Europe, andthat Governor Carter
never really did spell out any set of policies he would
pursue were he to be successful.
Q What did Kissinger say to the President
when he called?
MR. CHENEY: I don't know, Helen. I did not
talk to him.
MORE
- 8 -
Q
In view of the fact Mr. Frankel caught
the President up on his statement about the captive
nations, did the President say to you he had any second
thoughts about this?
MR. CHENEY: We did not discuss it in the car.
Q
Did he realize he had not said what
General Scowcroft said he meant?
MR. CHENEY: I will say again we did not
discuss it in the car.
Q
You have not discussed with him at
all the question of Poland since the debate?
MR. CHENEY: That is correct.
Q
Don't you think you should issue a
clarification on that?
MR. CHENEY: No, Helen. I thought he was clear
in terms of what he meant and I would say, as Brent
said, the point that was made -- and it was made within
the context of the charge that the Helsinki agreement
conceded or consisted of a U.S. concession of Soviet
dominance of Eastern Europe -- and in the response to
that question he made it very clear the U.S. does not
concede the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.
Q
What do you think the political effect of
this will be in terms of Polish-Americans, Americans
of Eastern European descent?
MR. CHENEY: Spence is the politician.
I think the political significance tonight has
to be looked at in the total debate, and whether or not
the American people came away with the feeling that
Governor Carter is better qualified to handle foreign
policy, and I don't think they came away with that
impression.
I don't think he spelled out at all, at any
place during the course of the debate, how he would pursue
different policies from those that have been pursued by
the President.
MORE
- 9 -
Q
I heard what you said on that score earlier,
but what I was asking is about a specific type or group of
voters, what they call, I think, the American supporters --
MR. CHENEY: I would suspect they would be strongly
supportive of the President's position that the United States
does not concede Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.
Q
Do you have any comment on the Roper Poll
which gives Carter 40 percent and Ford 30 percent?
MR. CHENEY: I have not seen it.
Q
What are your reactions of 40 for Carter,
30 for Ford, 30 undecided?
MR. CHENEY: I would want to look at the poll
before I commented on it.
Q
Does Mr. Spencer have any analysis of the
political fallout of the statement -- whatever exactly he
said or meant but the political statement about
domination in Poland?
MR. SPENCER: I don't view it as a political
problem at all. I think the President answered the
question very forthrightly and in the manner most people
understand. I don't see any political problem at all. As
far as the debate goes generally I look at it more from the
standpoint of perception and style. I think the President
was forceful tonight. I think when you use electronic
media for debate the style probably is important to the issues
they are discussing and he certainly scored on style tonight
being very forceful, in command, and I think he did a
tremendous job. I think he was much better than the
last debate.
Q
What do you think of Carter? Do you think he
came on better than you expected him to?
MR. SPENCER: No, I frankly thought Carter would be
better. I thought he was a little mushy.
Q
Can we get some mechanics straightened out
on tomorrow and the boycott announcement? Where are we going
to get it? Is it going to be made in Washington? Here?
Is Commerce going to make the announcement? Is the President
going to make the announcement?
MR. CHENEY: We can give you guidance on it in
the morning.
Q
Dick, when are we going to get a list of
companies who are participating in this boycott? This is
what the President said actually he would make public.
MR. CHENEY: We will have details in the morning.
Q
Was that a surprise? Did you know that was
coming?
MR. CHENEY: No, it has been in the works for a
week or ten days. It was not a surprise.
END
(AT 9:35 P.M. PDT)