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March 8, 1976 - Ford, Kissinger, Rumsfeld
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1553388
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March 8, 1976 - Ford, Kissinger, Rumsfeld
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Memoranda of Conversations (Nixon and Ford Administrations)
Ford Administration Memoranda of Conversations
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Israel
Angola
Egypt
Soviet Union
Presidential campaign, 1976
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1976-03-08
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1976
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1976-03-08
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File scanned from the National Security Adviser's Memoranda of Conversation Collection at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
MEMORANDUM
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION
PARTICIPANTS:
President Ford
Henry A. Kissinger, Secretary of State
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
Brent Scowcroft, Assistant to the President
for National Security Affairs
Richard Cheney, Assistant to the President
DATE AND TIME:
Monday, March 8, 1976
PLACE:
The Oval Office
The President: Findley gave me a letter on cruise missiles. [He hands
it to Scowcroft]. He gets into these things from time to time.
Kissinger: We need to study first what cruise missile doctrine should
be so we don't get caught, but they are not so good that they are the
solution to all strategic problems.
Rumsfeld: We can do more, but it will be unsatisfactory. We can't foresee
10 years out with precision what the uses will be. It never yet has happened.
Kissinger: How about putting it into the Defense Review Panel?
Rumsfeld: It about has its carburetor flooded now.
The President:
Let's do that and get the best look we can.
[There is discussion of Reagan and the damage he can do in the general
election with his arguments.]
Kissinger: I am giving a speech in Boston which slams Reagan and the
Congress. We need to coordinate our two speeches.
Cheney: I wonder if we need the speech and the message to go at the same
time. Maybe we want to save the message for later.
DECLASSIFIED
SEGREF/NODIS/XGDS
E.O. 12956 Sec. 3.6
GERALD LISAARY FORD
MR01-101, 101, # 32. 3/2/04 11/27/01
dal
7/20/04
-2-
The President: Let's look at them today and decide.
Rumsfeld: We have a problem with the SS 7 and 8 dismantling.
[There is discussion of what should be done. ]
Kissinger: Don and I both gave interviews to U.S. News and World
Report which are totally compatible but we are very hard on the Soviets.
On the whole they have stuck by detente -- only Angola is an aberration,
and it' partly a search for compensation for our successes. We have
to stop this stuff.
Rumsfeld: I have all my people saying that these ar e long-term Soviet
tr ends and we are in rough equivalence and we want to stop the deterioration,
not reverse it.
The President: Here is a Christian Science Monitor article saying how
could I say that in December FNLA and UNITA were winning.
[There is discussion of the fact that it wasn't right. ]
The President: What is the significance of Golda coming back in?
Kissinger: Rabin is in trouble. She is tough, but when she is convinced,
she will beat her maniacs into line. But as an advisor, she won't beat
anyone into line and the result will be more hawkish.
We need to say the same thing on C-130's.
Rumsfeld: I didn't know anything about it in my press conference.
Kissinger: You helped in Egypt. But we should say that right now we are
talking only about C-130's. If the situation changes and we beed to do more,
we will consult with the Congress. I wouldn't fight the issue now whether we
will have a defense relationship. We have put our thinking before the
Congress so we were certain we were leveling with them, and right now
we are requesting only C-130's. We don't foreclose something else but
there is no decision on anything else.
We do no good to Sadat by having all the Democrats come out against
him.
GERALD LIBRARY R FORD
-3-
The President: Al Haig is catching hell for his speech.
Kissinger: He showed bad judgment. He talked about how bad it was
to allow Communists in government in Europe.
Rumsfeld: Anything else?
Kissinger: I think we are overdoing it saying the Soviets are overwhelming
us.
Rumsfeld: I have told my people to be careful about that.
The President: But Haig did almost say it is almost hopeless.
Rumsfeld: Our problem is not now -- we have what we need -- but it is
the continued errosion of our capability to deter lower levels of conflict
in the future.
Kissinger: What has hurt us is the strategic decisions of the '60's --
which were made by the Democrats -- and the Congressional budget
cuts of the 70's.
Rumsfeld: That's right. Our situation is the result of the Democratic
decisions.
Kissinger: [Raised the issue of the bridging tanks for Israel from the
FRG issue. Just for information.
]
Eilts -- I hope you can see him briefly before he goes back.
The President: When is that?
Kissinger: Tomorrow night. He will be carrying our ideas to Sadat.
FORD a CERALO LIBRARY
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