Office of the Historian

54. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon1

Washington, November 28, 1970.
  • SUBJECT
    • Soviet Note on Protective Reaction Raid2

Ambassador Dobrynin called on me Tuesday, November 243 to deliver a Soviet protest note on last weekend’s bombing of North Vietnam (copy attached at Tab A).4 Highlights of the note are as follows:

  • —The Soviets wish to state their attitude on the bombing raid in this confidential manner as well as condemning it publicly;
  • —No justification can change the “aggressive nature” of reconnaissance flights over a sovereign state, and bombing of that state when it lawfully tries to prevent such flights—such actions rather than bringing closely a peaceful settlement in Vietnam, “inevitably complicate the whole situation still further;”
  • —Aggressive U.S. actions against North Vietnam “entail more far-reaching consequences” in terms of their impact on the international situation generally and on Soviet-American relations; they are [Page 170] inconsistent with your words to Gromyko on the necessity “to do everything so that events in Vietnam may not cloud relations between our two countries;”5
  • —The Soviet leadership hopes you will view these considerations “with utmost seriousness.”

I told Dobrynin that I was sure that he did not expect a response from us to his note, and he confirmed this. Our very brief meeting adjourned without discussion of any other subjects.

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 490, President’s Trip Files, Dobrynin/Kissinger, 1970, Vol. 3. Secret; Sensitive; Eyes Only. Sent for information. Lord forwarded the memorandum to Kissinger on November 27 and noted: “This will also serve as a memcon of the meeting. In your memo to the President I did not include any comment on this note, which would seem to be routine.” (Ibid.)↩
  2. In the wake of the unsuccessful raid the previous day on Son Tay, the former North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp, the United States conducted an extensive air strike over North Vietnam on November 21 to protect American reconnaissance planes.↩
  3. According to Kissinger’s Record of Schedule, the meeting lasted from 12:20 to 12:35 p.m. (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, Box 438, Miscellany, 1968–76)↩
  4. Attached but not printed.↩
  5. See Document 23.↩