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1552697
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April 19, 1974 - Nixon, Egyptian Ambassador Ashraf Ghorbal
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1552697
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document
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April 19, 1974 - Nixon, Egyptian Ambassador Ashraf Ghorbal
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Memoranda of Conversations (Nixon and Ford Administrations)
Nixon Administration Memoranda of Conversations
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Egypt
Middle East conflicts
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1974-04-19
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1974
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19
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1974-04-19
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1974
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File scanned from the National Security Adviser's Memoranda of Conversation
Collection at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
MEMORANDUM
Scaveroft file
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
CONFIDENTIAL
MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION
PARTICIPANTS:
President Nixon
Ashraf Ghorbal, Ambassador of Egypt
Brent Scowcroft, Deputy Assistant to the President
for National Security Affairs
DATE & TIME:
April 19, 1974
12:10 p.m.
PLACE:
The Oval Office; Rose Garden
The White House
The President: These are your credentials, Mr. Ambassador?
Ghorbal: These are my credentials, Mr. President, and it is a great
honor for my country to present them to you today.
The President: Here is my response, Mr. Ambassador, and I want
NSC MEMO, 11/24/98, STATE DEPT. GUIDELINES 3/8/04
State Periew
you to know and I want you to inform President Sadat that this is a day
I have looked forward to from the time I have entered this office.
I have felt that it was a great tragedy for both our countries that our
relations did not exist, due to events that we are all aware of in the
E.O. 12958, SEC. 3.5
NARA DATE 8/5/04
sixties. I realize, too, that we are entering a period that is vitally
important in terms of building not just a temporary but a permanent
peace in the Middle East, which will mean that your people will move
forward in peace rather than to have the plague of war, which has
DECLASSIFIED
plagued so many of the countries there over and over again.
And I want to say personally that one of the reasons I have welcomed
the opportunity to receive your credentials is that in 1963, at a time
when we did have relations, which was before the June war, my wife and
I visited Egypt with our two daughters, and we shall never forget not only
the great historical monuments which go back further than any in the
BY
world, but we will never forget the friendship. We look forward some
day to coming again,
CLASSIFIED BY HENRY A. KISSINGER
EXEMPT FROM GENERAL DECLASSIFICATION
SCHEDULE OF EXECUTIVE ORDER 11652
EXEMPTION CATEGORY 5 (b) (3)
CONFIDENTIAL
AUTOMATICALLY DECLASSIFIED ON Imp. to Det.
CONFIDENTIAL
- 2 -
Ghorbal: Mr. President, I am overwhelmed. I am deeply honored.
I am sure I grace everyone in Egypt when I say this is equally a great
day for each of us, for we are today ending the estrangement and looking
ahead to a rapprochement of cooperation and good friendship.
The people of Egypt remembered very well and remember very well the
visit of you, Mr. President, and Mrs. Nixon. Sixty-three has been long
back. It is high time we welcome you back, Mr. President, and we
look forward to your visiting Egypt very soon. I know that President
Sadat and Mrs. Sadat are anxious -- so are the people of Egypt -- to
welcome you back.
You have done admirably in bringing about the beginning, and we hope
the continuing process of establishing permanent peace in the Middle
East. We salute your efforts. We want this cooperation continuously,
not only after peace is achieved, but even beyond.
You have done tremendously. We look forward to your doing tremendously
and I want to thank you, Mr. President.
The President: Mr. Ambassador, in concluding, you have spoken of
what we have done. Let me say that I should put it in the plural, together
our two nations have worked out difficult problems in these past months
involving, of course, the disengagement.
And it is together, economically and other ways, that we can move forward
for not only progress for your country, but for all of your neighbors, which
I know President Sadat wants.
Thank you. [The press and photographers left.
As the General told you, we won't have a substantive meeting today but
as we get closer to my trip, we will have you in. We know of the role
you played in the reestablishment of our relations. We have exchanged
pieces of paper; the paper means nothing without the commitment behind
it. A paper can be torn up. My official and personal commitment is to
work toward permanent peace in the Middle East. Egypt is a great people,
though poor in natural resources. A great people like that must have
relations with a country like us.
Ghorbal: I am overwhelmed with honor. I look forward to a substantive
meeting whenever you wish.
CONFIDENTIAL
CONFIDENTIAL
- 3 -
The President: Right now we have a problem in Lebanon, and a Syrian
problem. Let's let them work along for a time.
[The President escorted Ambassador Ghorbal out to the Rose Garden.
]
The President: This is the Rose Garden. It is a beautiful time of year
with the flowers and rose bushes in bloom. My daughter was married
right over here.
Ghorbal: In my country rain is a good omen, so this is an auspicious day.
CONFIDENTIAL
2
Pres, Ghobal
19 april 74
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
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DECLASSIFIED
E.O. 12958, SEC. 3.5
NSC MEMO, 11/24/98, STATE DEPT. GUIDELINES state Deview 3/8/04
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