Reproduced from the open files
of the Nixon Presidential
Materials Staff

DECLASSIFIED
E.O. 12958, Sect. 3.6

By KHL NARA, Dato 5/12/04

Telecon

Len Garment
3/10/70 6:40 p.m.

K: I understand my staff member, Saunders, is dealing with
you on this thing.

G: Yes.

K: Don't do anything until I talk to you.

G: Okay, I won't do anything.

K: Because he doesn't know anything.

G: I have been informed . . . I've been working on this
school desegregation thing for the last 40 hours.

K: Where are you now?

G: In my office. Do you want me to come over?

K: How long will you be there?

G: All night. . . . Well half the night.

K: Call me before you leave if I haven't called you before
I leave.

By KHC NARA, Dato 5/12/04

*

TELCON
Laird/Kissinger

6:40 pm

3/17/70

L: I'm glad to hear your father is better.

K: He has had a number of infected teeth pulled. He's 83. I think he's over the crisis.

L: On the memo you sent over here on the problem in the Middle East. That paragraph 3 -- I tried to get some changes made. It concerns me -- we would be in a position to maintain __________ margin of safety. I would hope that would be a __________ way. It would be broader than anything we ever had.

K: That's what it's intended to be.

L: I talked to Bill and said I was concerned. I told him said he had changed that.

K: This is one in which I acted primarily as referee. There's no problem at all to put it -- you are talking about the public announcement. Let's see -- I get your point. We have no WH interest to anything else.

K: I know but I thought someone else could make it an open ended thing.

K: You are talking about the instructions -- wait, I'm getting it. I don't have -- is that the memo from the Secy. of State? I will be damned I know what you are talking about.

L: I will get it. Just a minute.

K: We changed the memo.

L: Let me talk about 3 other items.

K: I think you have an older draft.

L: The next item is -- on B-52's. I'm concerned about getting locked in on never using B-52's in Laos.

K: Absolutely. That's not the President's view. Someone popped off on testimony over there.

L: It's in Bill's testimony.

K: You said the name, not me. What did he say?

*

By KHL NARA, Dato 5/12/04

Laird/Kissinger

6:40 pm

3/17/70

-2-

L: He said we would never use them in Laos again.

K: That's not the President's view. How do we correct it?

L: And Mansfield went out and made a statement. We should keep our options open.

K: That's the President's view.

L: We should get it so we all testify the same. I'm alwasy the SOB -- on the Gulf of Tonkin

K: That's what the President wants -- what you said. He called Elliott Richardson yesterday, personally, to give him that order.

L: We have to have someone to keep this together. We need a meeting once in awhile so the President's point is everyone's view point.

K: You are on the right track. I will arrange it next week. I didn't know he had said this; it's outrageous.

L: On the sorties thing -- I told Ehrlichmand I would go on this but I told them they should clear it with me. I don't think we should get into it.

K: Absolutely not and the President's view is the same. After the President's meeting we talked to him. You tell them I told you on behalf of the President.

L: On MIRV we have a schedule we slipped -- we were going to go on Back Feb and then streched it out. Now it's June of this year. Now Poseidon is in Jan. See in my annex on the posture statement that's there. It's causing problems around town because the dates are available to the Congress. We can change them but we shouldn't before the Vienna meetings.

K: No. Don't worry. The President spoke about that an hour ago. It's ridiculous. The Russians wanted the SALT talks. Now they are using the talks to get at MIRV and ABM. If we give them that, what is the sense of the talks? And after Gardner Tucker's ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

L: It should not be State telling us to do that.

K: What would be acomplished by that? That moves us into a lateral move moratorium. If they give us that, how many are you putting in?

L: About 2 a month. The maximum we can do is 100 in the fiscal year.

K: I will mention it to the President but don't worry about it.

By: KHL NARA, Dato 5/12/04

*

Laird/Kssinger

6:40 pm

3/17/70

-3-

L: We can stop it but we shouldn't announce it before the talks. Here's the memo -- Page 2 of the memo to the President, dated March 2.

K: The one that Bill wrote?

L: "If as a restraint of the . . . . . "

K: That doesn't have any standing. It's not signed by the President. It's his memo.

L: I wanted it understood that we don't go along on that commitment.

K: If he wants to amend it to say "maintain Israeli military marginal error" I will go with that.

L: I have one problem -- they said they were going to finish the Spanish thing by a date in May. I don't think we should set a date.

K: That puts us against a deadline but the sooner the better.

L: One deadline is a problem because we are moving against it like last year.

K: I want to talk to you about your memos. I have quite a collection. DPRC memo. I answered the ______ memo. That wasn't generated by something, was it.

L: No, I just thought nothing was happening.

K: I back channeled to Bunker ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

L: My only problem in this area is -- when I see what is going on in the WH ? ? ? attack the national security report.

K: That's what I want on that committee. It bothers me.

L: ? ? ? ? ? That's what I bother me. I've got to have you with us.

K: You can count on me for that.

By KHC NARA, Date 5/12/04

TELCOM

Amb. Rabin/Kissinger

7:25 pm 3/17/70

K: I don't think an appointment tomorrow afternoon is possible. We will have to do it in the morning. Are you waiting for some answers? Do you want to come tonight for clarification?

R: It's not a question of clarification here. What time in the morning?

K: I haven't got the time yet. As late as possible?

R: Not before 10:00

K: I will call you back later. You should keep a measure of flexibility on this until you here from the President. And if there's trouble on the other end, you'll have to keep it in this channel.

R: No question about it.