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Q Dr. Kissinger, could you amplify what you said on page 87, where you talk about the need to review the strategic options involved in conducting a nuclear defense, if necessary, and how that would relate to what you said about MBFR and to an alliance role in defense?

DR. KISSINGER: I am just trying to see what you are referring to. I understand.

The question is what we meant on page 87 of the report, in the chapter on Europe, by a review of the strategic options involved in conducting a nuclear defense if it should become necessary, and how we can prepare within the alliance a framework that integrates defense planning and diplomacy. Isn't that what you asked, to explain No. 2 and 3?

Q I was talking about the alliance role in that, and the alliance planning.

DR. KISSINGER: Okay, fine. I will just confine it, then, to the first question.

I keep looking over here. Where is Ron Ziegler when I need him the most to cut off the questioning? (Laughter)

Q Where is he? (Laughter)

DR. KISSINGER: He is measuring the walls of my office. (Laughter)

Q There is a lot of other empty space around here. (Laughter)

DR. KISSINGER: It is clear that the use of nuclear weapons under current conditions has a different significance and must pursue a different strategy than was the case in the 1950s. Now, the problem of how nuclear weapons are to be used, if that should become unavoidable, the relationship between what used to be called tactical and strategic uses, what rational purposes can be achieved, has to be addressed by the alliance.

There exist several bodies which can do this; for example, the nuclear planning group that was established in the Kennedy Administration to perform this role. What we are attempting to bring about is to shift the discussion from the more formalistic agreement on general propositions to a more concrete perception of what would actually occur in specific circumstances. So the forums exist, but what needs to be done is a more systematic and comprehensive approach to what is a very serious problem.

MR. WARREN: One more question is all we have time for.

Q Mr. Kissinger, I have an additional question.

DR. KISSINGER: You pick it. Why should I make an enemy? (Laughter)

MR. WARREN: This gentleman down here.

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Q You have on page 142 a four-point program for the Middle East. Could you kindly elaborate a little on that? In the first sentence you speak of the process of negotiations. Do you mean by that that the Jarring mission has been abandoned in your future attempts to bring peace?

DR. KISSINGER: The question is, on page 142 where we list four areas or four points with respect to the Middle East, to what extent that represents an American program for the area; and secondly, whether the first point which refers to a process of negotiation with respect to the Arab-Israeli conflict means that we have abandoned the Jarring mission.

Actually, our attitude toward the negotiations in the Middle East is more fully covered on pages 138 and 139, and we make very clear that we are in favor of both the comprehensive approach as well as to the so-called interim approach; that we support both the Jarring mission as well as the various schemes that have been proposed that would have a practical consequence of clearing the Suez Canal and bringing about a withdrawal from some areas. We have explained on page 139 that we recognize that there has to be a relationship between the so-called interim approach and the so-called overall approach, and that we recognize the fact that one of the concerns is that if this relationship is not established, a new arrangement may take on the character of permanence.

Our view, however, is also that we should proceed on whichever route seems most promising at a particular moment; that we should be flexible about the modalities by which this relationship is established, and that the process by which progress is made must engage the parties in the Middle East in some form of contact with each other at some stage of the negotiations. This we have spelled out on pages 138 and 139. What you have on page 142 is really a summary that covers issues other than the Arab-Israeli issue, as well.

THE PRESS: Thank you.

END

(AT 11:35 A.M. EDT)