Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917–1972, Volume VIII, Public Diplomacy, 1969–1972

39. Transcript of a Telephone Conversation Between the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) and the Director of the United States Information Agency (Shakespeare)¹

Washington, October 6, 1969, 7:17 p.m.

Shakespeare said he felt he should cover several points with K before his dinner with William Buckley,² which had come out of a long (3–4 hour) dinner he had with Buckley in New York about 10 days ago. (1) Buckley said he thought the conservative group in this country was becoming increasingly concerned about Vietnam. Buckley feels that in about 2 months, that group will be opening up and being very critical of the Administration. He felt the reason for this was the group’s feeling that the Administration wasn’t being strong enough. In response to a query by Shakespeare, Buckley had said the two-month timetable was pretty definite.

(2) Buckley had told Shakespeare he wanted to register again with K his feeling about the concept of a volunteer army in Vietnam. K said he had received Buckley’s ideas on this.

(3) Shakespeare said Buckley’s third item was related to a personal matter. The conservative party³ has put him under enormous pressure in New York because of their outrage at Goodell.⁴ They are anxious to knock Goodell out much as they did Lindsey in the primary.⁵ They want Bill to run against Goodell. In order to do this, he must change his registration by January 1970 from Stamford to New York, even though the primary (?) would not be until April.⁶ As soon as he changes his registration, there is bound to be a lot of speculation as to why he is doing it. Buckley wondered how his role on the Advisory Commission would relate to this.

(4) Buckley, at the time of their dinner, was anxious to have a chat with K because he said he was puzzled—he had, in response to K’s suggestion, come up with a certain plan of action on the matter discussed by K with him. K had said it wasn’t a good plan of action. K said he planned to take this up with Buckley at dinner.

Shakespeare then said he wanted to mention one final piece of intelligence. When he was in Vietnam, he was immensely disturbed at the caliber of the reporters, and the reporting, going on. He felt at that time that the Laos and Thailand situations were going to blow as a result of conversations he had. When he got back, he told Stanton and Buckley as members of the Advisory Commission to take a look at Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. They both agreed to do it. Now Shakespeare has Buckley locked in—he is going to visit the three countries November 28 through December 5; and Stanton will probably be put on the same trip. In this connection, Shakespeare asked K’s advice as to who they should talk with. K said he would put something together on that, and that he would give Buckley total support. Shakespeare said he knew K would; and he had felt safe in posturing it.

Shakespeare said he was making a speech tomorrow, and one of the things he is going to talk about is the Voice of America, touching on what they are doing in Eastern Europe—the Munich transmitter and its value since they are jamming us, and since it will also come in on the Moscow wavelength in Eastern Europe. He asked K if he thought it would be safe to say that. K suggested he take it fairly easy—not make a big issue of it; especially with the new government in Germany he might get into severe trouble with them.⁷ Shakespeare thanked K for mentioning this. He hadn’t thought of the new Government. This had all been cleared with Kissinger.

1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, Kissinger Telephone Conversations, Chronological File, Box 2, October 1–13, 1969. No classification marking.
2. There is no indication as to when Shakespeare’s subsequent dinner with Buckley took place.
3. Founded in 1962. In 1965, Buckley ran as the Conservative Party candidate for mayor of New York. He lost to Lindsay, the Republican Party candidate, who was also the nominee of the Liberal Party.
4. New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller appointed Goodell to the Senate in September 1968 to fill the seat formerly held by Robert F. Kennedy.
5. Lindsay lost the 1969 Republican mayoral primary to State Senator John Marchi. Lindsay then campaigned as the candidate of the New York Liberal Party and won reelection.
6. Buckley’s brother James L. Buckley ran as the Conservative Party candidate in the 1970 Senate race in New York and defeated Goodell.
7. Federal elections took place in the Federal Republic of Germany on September 28. In a September 29 memorandum to the President, Kissinger stated: “Yesterday’s West German election does not appear to have significantly altered the make-up of the Bundestag. Neither of the prominent political parties—Kiesinger’s Christian Democratic Party and Brandt’s Social Democratic Party—gained a clear-cut majority in the Bundestag. The Christian Democrats will hold 242 of the 496 seats. The Social Democratic Party announced that it will attempt to form a governing coalition with the liberal Free Democratic Party.” For the complete memorandum, see Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, vol. XL, Germany and Berlin, Document 27.