79. Backchannel Message From the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Scowcroft) to Secretary of State Kissinger in New Delhi1
Tohak 48/WH42948. 1. The President asked me this morning to thank you for your reports of your discussions in Moscow.2 He said that he summed up the overall import of your reports to be very cautiously optimistic. He was encouraged mostly, he said, that Brezhnev had not rejected our proposal out of hand.3 At least we had now some concrete positions on which the subsequent discussions could focus. He was also very interested in your descriptions of Brezhnev and his personality. Obviously with the view toward his own meeting, he asked whether Brezhnev’s sharp changes of mood were typical or unique to this encounter and also whether Brezhnev was given typically to sessions devoted largely to critical harangue. I told him that it was fairly standard procedure for him to “rake you over the coals” in at least one session and that, indeed, his moods varied sharply from one session to the next. The President seems in a very good mood and said he got a good rest over the weekend at Camp David. He asked that I tell you how pleased he was with the way you had conducted the Moscow discussions and he hoped that you would not let yourself get too exhausted with the arduous “whistle-stop” days ahead of you.
[Omitted here is a brief paragraph unrelated to U.S.-Soviet relations.]
Warm regards.
- Source: Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Trip Briefing Books and Cables of Henry Kissinger, 1974–1977, Box 3, Kissinger Trip File, 10/20–11/9/74, Europe, South Asia & Middle East, TOHAK (3). Secret; Sensitive; Eyes Only; Immediate.↩
- In message Hakto 22 to Scowcroft, October 25, Bremer reported: “Secretary has asked if there has been any reaction from the President to his reports.” (Ibid., HAKTO (1)) For Kissinger’s reports on his trip to Moscow, see Documents 65, 68, 70, 72, 77, and 78.↩
- The SALT proposal in Document 53.↩