Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Source Description
This file contains fred Dent, Elliot Richardson
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
1553427
label
April 12, 1976 - Ford, Kissinger, Scowcroft
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
1553427
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
April 12, 1976 - Ford, Kissinger, Scowcroft
description
This file contains fred Dent, Elliot Richardson
citationUrl
collections
Memoranda of Conversations (Nixon and Ford Administrations)
Ford Administration Memoranda of Conversations
subjects
Greece
China
Lebanon
Philippines
Syria
Africa
Law of the sea
thumbnailUrl
largeImageUrl
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
1553427
coverageEndDate
day
12
logicalDate
1976-04-12
month
4
year
1976
coverageStartDate
day
12
logicalDate
1976-04-12
month
4
year
1976
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
c665f0863f5efa0d
ocrText
File scanned from the National Security Adviser's Memoranda of Conversation Collection at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
1a
MEMORANDUM
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
DECLASSIFIED
SECRET/NODIS/XGDS
E.O. 12958 SEC. 3.5
OSD ets 6/20/08
#8;
MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION
dol NARA DATE 9/5/08
PARTICIPANTS:
President Ford
Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Secretary of State
Brent Scowcroft, Assistant to the President
for National Security Affairs
DATE AND TIME:
Monday, April 12, 1976
9:20 - 10:30 a.m.
PLACE:
The Oval Office
President: That Safire article [attached] is the damedest thing I ever saw.
Kissinger: I want you to know I have no separate files of which there
are no copies.
[Described what kinds of papers he had. ]
Nessen should say the White House has and always has had all memcons
and other official records in which I participated as Assistant to the
President.
President: Why is Safire so vicious?
Kissinger: He thinks I was responsible for tapping him. [Described
the NSC tapping process. ] I didn't even know he was being tapped, as
is the case with several others.
President: I thought it was a lousy article. He was stretching for
something to say.
Well, how are things in Lebanon?
SECRET/NODIS/XGDS
SECRET - XGDS (3)
CLASSIFIED BY: HENRY A. KISSINGER
SECRET/NODIS/XGDS
- 2 -
Kissinger: Quite well. We may walk through that mine field okay.
President: The leftists are really getting after the Syrians, arent
they?
Kissinger: Yes. The Syrian force is there to keep the pressure on
the negotiating process. The Israelis have been very relaxed.
Dinitz said yesterday that the Syrian force was reaching the limits
of what was acceptable, but nothing more.
Our information is that the Soviets are urging restraint. We sent them
a tough note. Egypt is urging restraint on Jumblatt.
The next danger is that the new President [of Lebanon] may ask for
Syrian troops.
President: Because he won't have any forces to keep order?
Kissinger: Yes.
President: Aren't there any alternatives to the Syrians?
Kissinger: [Described the problems with all the other forces.
]
President: Can't the Saiqa and PLA do it?
Kissinger: Maybe. That depends. But this could be a crisis point.
President: I didn't see Schlesinger on TV yesterday. The headline
was about our dealings on military aid with the Chinese.
Kissinger: We are having no discussion of any kind with the Chinese
about military assistance.
I told Schlesinger he should put his mind to what we could do if the
Soviets jumped the Chinese. There was also some talk of a hot line
and early warning system. This happened in '73. We talked about
selling them an early warning system or we would do it and give
them a readout. I talked to Schlesinger at the Gridiron. He said we
hadn't put enough into Angola -- it was our fault.
SECRET/NODIS/XGDS
FORD ---,
SECRET/NODIS/XGDS
- 3 -
President: Listen, if we hadn't done what we did in Angola, every-
one would now be screaming that we let the Soviets take it because
of detente.
Kissinger: I am going to Africa. I plan to take a strong stand for
the blacks with respect to South Africa.
President: That is okay with me.
Kissinger: You will get some flak from the South on it. I will
support repeat of the Byrd Amendment.
President: That is our position -- but it should be on its merits,
not as an amendment on another bill.
Scowcroft: We got it removed from the Defense Program Authorization
Bill.
Kissinger: I met with a panel of Wall Street Journal editors. I said
Zumwalt never protested SALT. They said Schlesinger told them there
were twelve protests from the JCS but he was asked from the White
House not to forward them. I said that was a lie. [Described the III-X
silo issue.
]
Bitsios is coming this week. We plan to have an exchange of letters
in which they ask about the Aegean and Cyprus and I answer. They are also
asking for aid and they want the same amount as Turkey. That is impossible.
This will cause us some problems with the Turks but it is manageable.
[Discusses some details of the exchange of letters]
President: What about Clerides' resignation?
Kissinger: Those negotiations will be hard to get off the ground,
because of the domestic situation of all the parties.
President: I saw a TV broadcast about Greek refugees. It was calculated
to stimulate the Greeks.
Kissinger: Congress will like the Greek deal.
President: [Describes the AHEPA dinner -- moderate reception.
SECRET/NODIS/XGDS
SECRET/NODIS/XGDS
- 4 -
Kissinger: I am meeting with Romulo. We are setting high standards
for base negotiations. We offered them $25 million a year, but they
now will want much more.
You have the 200-mile sea bill before you.
President: You gave a speech on Law of the Sea last week.
Kissinger: It was well received. If we make it, this will be an
historic achievement. The last one lasted 300 years.
President: How about the problems in the delegation?
Kissinger: We have a unified position. Learson is another Moynihan.
Simon has been great to work with. [Discussion of the 200-mile bill.]
Scowcroft: McCloskey called me. He wants you to veto with a promise
that you will welcome resubmission if adequate progress is not made
during this negotiating session.
President: I will look at it carefully.
Scowcroft: Discussed nature of his commitment to sign. ]
Kissinger: I think you have to get Fred Dent under control. He is
letting Congressional staff in all his meetings and has sent a letter
to Long. [He reads the letter]. I think he has to walk the cat back.
Fred behaves as if his loyalty is to the Finance Committee. If the
Finance Committee gets away with it, all the other committees will
want the same. This undermines the separation of powers.
President: Have you talked to Dent?
Kissinger: No. I will talk to him and if we can't solve it, we will
come to you.
President: You talk to him.
Kissinger: Next is Elliott Richardson. He wants to go to China.
President: I thought I told him no.
Scowcroft: Not really. He wants to talk to you this week.
SEGRET/NODIS/XGDS
SECRET/NODIS/XGDS
- 5 -
Kissinger: Richardson wants to negotiate textiles and claims and he
wants to take Zarb with him on oil.
President: I will take care of Richardson.
Kissinger: Rogers. If he is a massive problem, we should drop it,
but the delay won't make it easier.
[Some discussion. ]
President: Will the Democrats and at least some Republicans support
him?
Kissinger: All the Democrats will, and I think Case, Scott and Griffin
at least.
President: Why don't you find that out? How about Goldwater?
Kissinger: I am going to Arizona with Goldwater on Friday. I
will talk to Scott and Griffin first.
On my Arizona speech, I won't break any new ground. I will talk
about optimism and pessimism in foreign policy -- saying it isn't
optimism to keep the truth from the people.
[Discussion of Woodward and Bernstein book on Nixon. ]
SECRET/NODIS/XGDS
Mr. Ford's Cover-Up
House long before Watergate, and
Apr-12
By William Safire
they have not yet been restored.
10
How come? The reason, I think, is
Whoever, having the custody of any
that there is material fn that "inner"
such record
willfully and unlaw-
file" that Secretary Kissinger does
fully
removes
the same, shall
not want anybody in the White House,
be fined not more than $2,000 or im-
the Department of Defense, the C.I.A.
prisoned not more than three years, or
or certainly the Congress to see. There
both; and shall forfeit his office.
are certain meetings, particularly with
-18 U.S. Code 2071 (B
Ambassador Dobrynin, that he wants
to be able to expunge from the rec-
When J. Edgar Hoc ver ran the
ord. If he can control the "memcons,"
F.B.I., he withheld certain highly sensi-
he can rewrite history.
tive files from the bureau's filing
How does Nelson Rockefeller feel
system; upon his death, those files
about his complicity in all this?
were destroyed, frustrating law en-
'Henry's a friend," the Vice Presi-
forcement officials and historians.
dent told me. "I told him he could
When Henry Kissinger ran the Na-
have the use of the vault.' When?
tional Security Council, he, too,
"I don't remember when. Did he just
withheld certain records from the
volunteer his vault, or did Henry ask?
council's computerized retrieval sys-
"I don't remember." Were six filing
tem. Some months ago, I reported
cabinets filled with secret records
that these "dead key scrolls"-typed
stored there? "There's been a small
transcripts of all his telephone con-
volume of papers stored there. Did he
versations, taken down secretly by a
realize his personal vault was being
Cit
secretary on a dead, or silent, exten-
used improperly to store official
sion-were no longer in the National
secrets? Henry's a friend. I think he
Security Council, where they belonged,
said something about papers from Har-
but had been taken over to the State
vard, I don't know anything about
PV
Department.
classified documents."
Messrs. Woodward and Bernstein
Could I see the man who runs his
have added another wrinkle to that
Pocantico vault, to see what was
story: It seems that when these sensi-
checked in and out, and who was per-
350,000
tive records were removed from the
mitted access to the documents? "No,
its who
White House, they were first sent to
you can't, that's private." And what
every
the private vault of Nelson Rockefeller
of his taxpayer-paid aide, a young
that
Is
at his Pocantico, N.Y., estate. After a
naval officer named-you guessed it-
it
obby
Federal attorney warned that boxes
Jonathan Howe, the same Kissinger
who
of top-secret documents could not
hand who operated the Pocantico un
t?
Is
lawfully be kept. in a private home,
derground railroad? "No, he's unavail-
pub-
the Secretary brought them back onto
able."
oliti-
Federal property.
Here is the second highest ranking
the
Here is some more information,
official in our Government, who was
which the White House refuses to
chosen by President Ford to head the
is
commission to restore respect for law
is
direct the National Security Council
le
Marshell Arisman
or the State Department to confirm
in our intelligence community. His
United States strategic
or deny:
home was used as the safe-house for
the illegal concealment of the nation's
1. Dr. Kissinger's "inner file," as
raise serious doubts
secrets. His stonewalling answer to
Security Council staffers refer to the
legitimate inquiry is that he cannot
vanient triangularity in the
records withheld from the system, is
be held responsible because he did,
among China, the
not limited to telephone transcripts.
not want to know what was going on
and the Soviet Union.
Memoranda of conversations with the
in his own home.
accepted view that Peking
President and foreign officials like
Behind the stone wall, I suspect,
Washington and Moscow
Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin are in-
there is an important story-of con-
proved. Indeed, the Chinese
cluded, and in many cases, no other
versations the public or at Teast key
grests very, much the con-
copies of the memos exist.
Government officials are entitled to
there are paths to great
2. The assignment to withhold ma-
know, and perhaps of records that
that do not depend upon
terial from proper Security Council
have mysteriously disappeared.
anditures for armaments.
classification and filing was once one
President Ford, who ostentatiously
has done more than
of David Young's functions; when that
offers F.B.I. help to Congress for plug-
acceptance of the prem-
Kissinger aide went off to head the
ging its leaks, has assigned nobody
tclear deterrence. Unlike
"plumbers," aides Jonathan Howe and
to look into this major breach of se-
American élites, its leaders
Peter Rodman took over.
curity. But it is: Gerald Ford's Vice
upon such assumptions.
3. Individual briefcase-loads of this
President who winks at the rule of
gains would accrue to
secret material were taken out of the
law in handling intelligence; it is Ger-
it to depart from the
White House to the Rockefeller estate
ald Ford's National Security Adviser
rategic course that now
in the early seventies, culminating in
who refuses all comment at an abuse
so
well?
a big move of the remaining files in
of power he was surely aware of; it
April. 1973. The Kissinger men will
is Gerald Ford's Secretary of State
Pollack is a research fellow
claim they were "protecting" the files
who treats the nation's secrets as his
University program for
from the Nixon men, but the files
personal secrets, and it is Gerald
international affairs.
began disappearing from the White
Ford's cover-up that must be exposed.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION
Presidential Libraries Withdrawal Sheet
WITHDRAWAL ID 018424
REASON FOR WITHDRAWAL
National security restriction
TYPE OF MATERIAL
Note
DESCRIPTION
Brent Scowcroft's handwritten notes
from meeting with Ford and Kissinger
CREATION DATE
04/12/1976
VOLUME
4 pages
COLLECTION/SERIES/FOLDER ID
031400860
COLLECTION TITLE
National Security Adviser. Memoranda of
Conversations
BOX NUMBER
19
FOLDER TITLE
April 12, 1976 - Ford, Kissinger,
Scowcroft
DATE WITHDRAWN
08/02/2004
WITHDRAWING ARCHIVIST
GG