Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume II, Organization and Management of U.S. Foreign Policy, 1969–1972

23. Memorandum by the Chairman of the NSC Under Secretaries Committee (Richardson)¹

NSC–U/DM 1

Washington, February 7, 1969.

TO

• The Deputy Secretary of Defense
• The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
• The Director of Central Intelligence
• The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

SUBJECT

• The Organization and Functioning of the NSC Under Secretaries Committee

NSDM No. 2 of January 20² established the NSC Under Secretaries Committee under my chairmanship. In order to have time reserved on our calendars for meetings of the Committee, I wish to confirm that we will hold 4:00 p.m. Thursday each week. It is understood that the Committee will probably not meet each week and I will attempt to get word to you on meetings as far in advance as possible. I think it important, however, to hold this time so that operational problems can be scheduled for consideration by the Committee on fairly short notice.

I have discussed with Henry Kissinger the problem of assuring closest coordination of all phases of NSC activity. In order to make our procedures as consistent with the NSC and Review Group operations as possible, my staff will use the following designations on documents:

• —NSC–U/DM (Under Secretaries Committee Decision Memorandum)
• —NSC–U/SM (Under Secretaries Committee Study Memorandum)³

In addition, the Committee will use two auxiliary series:

• —NSC–U/N (Under Secretaries Committee Administrative Notices)⁴
• —NSC–U/M (Under Secretaries Committee Minutes)

I hope in the next few days to be able to indicate several subjects and the date for consideration of these subjects in the Under Secretaries Committee. I also hope that you will feel free to suggest to me matters that you wish brought before this Committee. I would then discuss these suggestions with Henry Kissinger in order to assure appropriate coordination with other parts of the NSC structure.

Elliot

1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–270, Under Secretaries Decision Memoranda, U/DM 1. Information copies were sent to the Acting Director of AID, the Director of USIA, the Director of OEP, and the Under Secretary of the Treasury.
2. Document 11.
3. Copies of NSC U/SM 1 through NSC U/SM 150 are in the National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Boxes H–249 through H–269, Under Secretaries Study Memoranda and ibid., RG 59 S/S–U/SM Files: Lot 81 D 309. Copies of NSC U/D 1 through NSC U/DM 126 are ibid., Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Boxes H–270 through H–280 and ibid., RG 59, S/S–U/DM Files: Lot 83 D 276.
4. Copies of NSC U/N 1 through NSC U/N 149 are ibid, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–281, U/N and ibid, RG 59, S/S–U/N Files: Lot 83 D 277.