FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AUGUST 22, 1973

Office of the White House Press Secretary
(San Clemente, California)

THE WHITE HOUSE

EXCHANGE OF LETTERS BETWEEN
THE PRESIDENT AND
SECRETARY OF STATE WILLIAM P. ROGERS

August 20, 1973

Dear Bill:

It is with the greatest reluctance and regret that I accept your resignation as Secretary of State.

I cannot do so without thinking back gratefully on our quarter century of close personal friendship, on the battles we have fought together and the crises we have weathered together, and on your unwavering good spirits, good judgment and good sense.

I vividly recall that you were the first person I turned to for advice and counsel after receiving the terrible news of President Eisenhower's heart attack in 1955, and I recall how much your calm, reasoned encouragement meant to me as I sought to do what was right in the course of that ordeal. But that was only one of many times, before and since, when I have instinctively turned to you for advice and relied heavily on your judgment at those critical moments that are the truest test not only of an associate's friendship, but also of his character.

Few men have given so much of themselves to their country as you have, with your eight years of distinguished service as Deputy Attorney General and Attorney General in President Eisenhower's Administration, and now having carried the heavy responsibilities of Secretary of State for four and a half years at a particularly crucial time in the evolution of the Nation's foreign policies. Throughout, your service has been completely dedicated and completely selfless. The Nation owes you an enormous debt of gratitude.

As Secretary of State, you have represented this country abroad with great skill. You have played an historic role in the formulation and execution of those policies which I believe, and I know you believe, can at long last produce a structure of peace in the world that will endure long into the future, and that will make it possible for differences among nations to be settled at the negotiating table rather than on the battlefield. This is an achievement of which you should be immensely proud, just as I am immensely proud of the vital contribution you have made to it.

Not only in foreign policy, but also on the wide range of other issues on which I have sought your advice, it has always been given with candor and courage and with exceptional insight. I have appreciated this greatly, and the Nation is much the better for your service -- service which I know has been at great personal sacrifice.

Pat joins me in wishing you and Adele the very best in the years ahead, and in trusting that we will continue to see both of you often.

With warmest regards,

****************

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August 16, 1973

Dear Mr. President:

I herewith submit my resignation as Secretary of State effective September 3, 1973.

Because of our personal friendship which has extended over such a long period of time I take this action with a bit of sadness. You will recall, though, that when I accepted the post I did it with a firm resolve to return to the private practice of the law at the end of your first term of office. However, because of several pressing matters, particularly the closing phase of our involvement in the war in Viet-Nam, an uncertain cease-fire in the Middle East, the initial phase of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and the need for immediate attention to our relations with NATO, CENTO, Japan, South Korea and our Latin American allies it was agreed that I should stay on for awhile.

Now that the United States has ended its long war in Indochina; that the cease-fire in the Middle East has had its third anniversary; that the first phase of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe has ended satisfactorily; and that our relations with our allies as well as with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China are on a good basis I believe the time is right for a change.

It has been a great privilege and honor to serve the nation as Secretary of State during the last four and one-half years. Under your strong and effective leadership the conduct of our foreign affairs has been marked with extraordinary success. Because of your policies, initiative and resolve, and the loyal support and assistance of many others including those in the State Department with whom I have been privileged to be associated, the world is a much more peaceful place than it was four and one-half years ago.

Under your leadership we are on the way to constructing a structure of international relationships which gives hope of providing peace and stability for future generations. It is the completion of this task especially which is so important to all mankind and which will continue to command great public support during the remainder of your term.

Please accept my thanks and deep appreciation for giving me the opportunity to serve the country during these critical and important years in our nation's history. Adele joins me in sending you and Pat our warmest personal regards.

The President,
The White House

# # #

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AUGUST 22, 1973

August 20, 1973

Dear Bill:

With warmest regards,

****************

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August 16, 1973

Dear Mr. President:

It has been a great privilege and honor to serve the nation as Secretary of State during the last four and one-half years. Under your strong and effective leadership the conduct of our foreign affairs has been marked with extra-ordinary success. Because of your policies, initiative and resolve, and the loyal support and assistance of many others including those in the State Department with whom I have been privileged to be associated, the world is a much more peaceful place than it was four and one-half years ago.

# # #

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AUGUST 22, 1973

THE WHITE HOUSE

August 20, 1973

Dear Bill:

With warmest regards,

****************

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August 16, 1973

Dear Mr. President:

#. # #

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AUGUST 22, 1973

THE WHITE HOUSE

August 20, 1973

Dear Bill:

With warmest regards,

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August 16, 1973

Dear Mr. President:

# # #

PRESS CONFERENCE NO. 32

of the

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

11:30 A.M. PDT

August 22, 1973

Wednesday

At the Western White House
San Clemente, California

THE PRESIDENT: Ladies and gentlemen, I
have an announcement before going to your questions.

It is with the deep sense of not only official
regret, but personal regret, that I announce the resigna-
tion of Secretary of State William Rogers, effective
September 3rd. A letter, which will be released to the
press after this conference, will indicate my appraisal
of his work as Secretary of State.

I will simply say at this time that he wanted
to leave at the conclusion of the first four years. He
agreed to stay on because we had some enormously important
problems coming up, including the negotiations which
resulted in the end of the war in Vietnam, the Soviet
summit, the European Security Conference, as well as in
other areas -- Latin America, and in Asia -- where the
Secretary of State, as you know, has been quite busy
over these past eight months.

As he returns to private life, we will not
only miss him, in terms of his official service, but
I shall particularly miss him because of his having
been, through the years, a very close personal friend
and advisor.

That personal friendship and advice, however,
I hope still to have the benefit of, and I know that
I will.

As his successor, I shall nominate, and send
to the Senate for confirmation, the name of Dr. Henry
Kissinger. Dr. Kissinger will become Secretary of State,
assume the duties of the office after he is confirmed by
the Senate. I trust the Senate will move expeditiously
on the confirmation hearings because there are a number
of matters of very great importance that are coming up.

There are, for example, some matters that might
even involve some foreign travel by Dr. Kissinger that
will have to be delayed in the event that the Senate
hearings are delayed.

Dr. Kissinger's qualifications for this post,
I think, are well known by all of you ladies and gentlemen,
as well as those looking to us and listening to us on
television and radio.

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He will retain the position, after he becomes Secretary of State, of Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In other words, he will have somewhat a parallel relationship to the White House which George Shultz has. George Shultz, as you know, is Secretary of Treasury, but is also an Assistant to the President in the field of economic affairs.

The purpose of this arrangement is to have a closer coordination between the White House and the Departments, and in this case, between the White House, the national security affairs, the NSC, and the State Department, which carries a major load in this area.

And also, another purpose is to get the work out in the Departments where it belongs, and I believe that this change in this respect, with Dr. Kissinger moving in as Secretary of State and still retaining the position as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, will serve the interest not only of coordination, but also, of the interests of an effective foreign policy.

I will simply say, finally, with regard to Secretary Rogers, that he can look back on what I think, and I suppose it is a self-serving statement but I will say it about him rather than about myself, at the moment one of the most successful eras of foreign policy in any Administration in history -- an era in which we ended a war, the longest war in America's history; an era, in addition, in which we began to build a structure of peace, particularly involving the two great powers, the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union, where before there had been nothing but ugly and at some times, very, very difficult confrontation.

We still have a long way to go. There are trouble spots in the area of the Mid-East, others -- Southeast Asia, which we could go into in detail.

But as Secretary Rogers looks back on his years -- 4-1/2 years of service as Secretary of State -- he can be very proud that he was one of the major architects of what I think was a very successful foreign policy.

And now, we will go to the questions. I think AP, Miss Lewine, has the first question.

QUESTION: Mr. President, on Watergate, you have said that disclosure of the tapes could jeopardize and cripple the functions of the President. Question: If disclosure carries such a risk, why did you make the tapes in the first place, and what is your reaction to surveys that show three out of four Americans believe you were wrong to make the tapes?

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