206. Memorandum of Conversation1
PARTICIPANTS
- President Ford
- Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Secretary of State and Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
- Edward H. Levi, Attorney General
- John O. Marsh, Jr., Counsellor to the President
- Lt. General Brent Scowcroft, Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
[Omitted here is discussion of Congressional investigations of the U.S. intelligence community.]
Kissinger: I talked to Dobrynin about the grain deal.2 He said we have no idea how outraged they are on the grain deal. First we hold up sales; then we ram a long-term deal down their throats; then we hold them up on freight rates; then when they are trying to cooperate on the oil deal, we leak about a discount in a way which sets OPEC against them. I think we have gone to the limit. Hal [Sonnenfeldt]3 thinks so and so does Brent.
President: Grain prices went down the limit. The farmers are going to be screaming. Can we have them start buying?
Kissinger: I had agreed they could buy six—we can go to 8.
President: Let’s stick with 6 for now. When would this happen—Thursday?4
Kissinger: Let’s make it Friday. They would have to determine when to buy. We would sign the oil letter, but I think we won’t get anything.
President: That’s O. K.
[Omitted here is a brief exchange on Lebanon.]
- Source: Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Memoranda of Conversations, 1973–1977, Box 16. Secret; Nodis. The meeting was held in the Oval Office.↩
- See Document 205.↩
- Brackets in the original.↩
- October 16.↩