Office of the Historian

235. Summary of Conclusions of a Meeting of the Senior Review Group1

Washington, July 22, 1971, 2:35–3:40 p.m.

SUBJECT

  • Cease-Fire

PARTICIPATION

  • Chairman—Henry A. Kissinger
  • State
    • Mr. U. Alexis Johnson
    • Mr. William Sullivan
    • Mr. Arthur Hartman
  • Defense
    • Mr. David Packard
    • Mr. Armistead Selden
    • Mr. Clayton E. McManaway
    • Mr. Dennis J. Doolin
    • Mr. Frederick D. Leutner
  • JCS
    • Admiral Thomas H. Moorer
    • Brig. Gen. William C. Burrows
    • Lt. Col. Paul Donovan
  • CIA
    • Mr. Richard Helms
    • Mr. George Carver
  • NSC Staff
    • Col. Richard T. Kennedy
    • Mr. Wayne Smith
    • Mr. W.R. Smyser
    • Mr. Robert Sansom
    • Mr. John Negroponte
    • Adm. Robert Welander
    • Mr. Mark Wandler

SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS

It was agreed that:

  • —the Cease-Fire Terms Paper2 would be sent to the field for comment, with responses due by August 6.

The Vietnam Working Group will start preparing a summary paper of cease-fire alternatives for the President, to include:

  • —field comments on the basic inter-agency cease-fire paper;
  • —a more detailed analysis of the composition and role of an international supervisory body, based on a State Department paper on this subject;3
  • —a discussion of the change in resources or the added security measures the GVN will have to take to protect itself against terrorism and harassment under cease-fire conditions;
  • —an estimate of the probable outcome of the struggle for control of the contested 32% of the population;
  • —an estimate of how quickly the enemy could conduct a buildup under the cease-fire conditions which would give him the offensive capabilities projected in the CIA timetable, and an estimate of what the enemy supply throughput would have to be in order to meet the CIA timetable.

[Omitted here are the minutes of the meeting.]

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–112, SRG Minutes, Originals, 1971. Top Secret; Sensitive. The meeting took place in the Situation Room of the White House.↩
  2. The paper, which Kissinger requested on October 16, 1970, was prepared by the VSSG on June 10. (Ibid., Box H–55, SRG Meetings, Ceasefire 7/22/71, 1 of 2)↩
  3. Sullivan described the paper briefly during the meeting. He explained that the optimum supervisory body would be composed of police-type units from Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia and range in size from 6,000 to 18,000 men. The minimum the administration could accept would be the current International Control Commission, assuming good U.S. intelligence. A copy of the paper is ibid.↩