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Telecon Mr. Kissinger Prof. Yoshida 4/15/70; 9:20 p. m. Y: My friend has asked me to assure you that it is his never changed intention to honor his commitment and to go through with the negotiations. He appreciates the embarrassing position of your friend and expresses his personal regret for the delay in reaching a mutual agreement. As you described it to me the other day, my friend realizes this is indeed an unfortunate thing for both of us. At the final stage he will exercise his political power to get this done. He knows that he will have to pay a heavy political price. K: How will we get to the final stage? Y: I have made it clear to my friend that our counterproposal must be based on your three conditions. He understood that. He has already told that to the two top aides as his own idea -- nothing to do with our channel. But he is not an expert on the subject. Apparently he has some confusion and difficulty in getting this translated into a concrete counterproposal. In light of the difficult situation here, just between us, when I come to see you next week around the 24th, I wonder if you could prepare a few options accommodating your three points SO that I could give them to my friend so that he will be able to formulate his own counterproposals based on one of your ideas and then we could put it to you. K: I understand. Y: You are not an expert, but sometimes I feel that an outsider can see things much better and put them in the proper perspective. I would like you to give me some options, if you can. K: Right, I will do that. One other possibility -- I talked to my friend this afternoon and he was picking up the suggestion of your friend that it be done through private negotiations secretly. If you want to send somebody here, he would let me take a personal interest in the matter to get the thing settled. Y: I see, with you? K: Yes -- of course, I would have to take practical advice. It would not be a bad time to do this before May 2 for one technical reason -- one of the men with whom you were SO concerned, counterpart of your Mr. M -- will be away and therefore it will be somewhat easier for us to be flexible.