Office of the Historian

243. Transcript of Telephone Conversation Between Secretary of State Kissinger and the Minister of the Soviet Embassy (Vorontsov)1

Washington, October 23, 1973, 11:25 a.m.

V: Hello.

K: Yuri [Yuli].

[Page 680]

V: Yes, Henry.

K: I just talked to the President.2 Two things, (1) we would really like a delay if at all possible.

V: Oh, oh, that doesn’t mean that the Israelis will take some more 50 miles of territory during the delay.

K: No, no; I don’t believe—I don’t know how fast they are moving—

V: I don’t know either but—

K: At least an hour.

V: Well, the Security Council never meets on the dot but still maybe just to have it started at 12:00 but then the time for agreement on the Resolution and everything like that and you will have your time. But to postpone the meeting is not very good in the eyes of the Arab countries.

K: Can you see whether Malik and Scali can’t get some delay?

V: Malik said he has already engaged himself on the 12 o’clock with the Arabs and with the First Chairman or President of the Security Council.

K: You can then get a delay in the vote or something?

V: But later on they can do it. Yes, I know it for sure.

K: Okay. Well, do that then. Secondly, we definitely cannot accept your phrase “withdrawn to the position where they were at the moment of the adoption of the decision on the ceasefire.”

V: How are you suggesting to change it?

K: Well, we have not yet decided. I have just talked to the President. What we could consider is “where they were at the moment the ceasefire went into effect.”

V: Went into effect. Well, okay, I just warn Moscow about this, that you’ll have these changes and warn Malik. But, again, let Scali and Malik talk on this.

K: Sure.

V: Okay?

K: Good. But this is not yet definite.

V: I would rather not see definite. I would rather see it as it is in the text.

K: No, that is out of the question.

V: Out of the question.

K: That we will not accept.

[Page 681]

V: Okay, let’s work on that.

K: Good.

V: Good.

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, Kissinger Telephone Conversations, Transcripts (Telcons), Chronological File, Anatoli[y] Dobrynin File, Box 28. No classification marking.↩
  2. Kissinger met with the President from 10:15 to 10:32 a.m. and again from 11:18 to 11:21. (Ibid., White House Central Files, President’s Daily Diary)↩