Office of the Historian

32. Notes of a Telephone Conversation Between the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) and Secretary of State Rogers1

Washington, November 20, 1969, 6:03 p.m.

K wanted to check in with R. K said he told Alex Johnson what he knows on what went on this morning.2 K said the President thinks Sato agreed to use his personal influence to get a comprehensive agreement.3 K is now going to get from Stans what Stans considers a reasonable agreement, and Sato will take it from there. R said you want to bet? K said do I want to bet what, that Sato will deliver? R said he doesn’t think we’ll ever get all the minds involved together. K said he’s not part of that one; he doesn’t have anything in his mind. K said if the Japanese gave him a blank piece of paper and said write what you want, it would still be blank. R said well we don’t have to worry for the moment.

K said Sato told the P he would see that the Geneva talks led somewhere. K said he even made a rather concrete proposal. Sato said we should agree in Geneva, keep the agreement secret, then the Japanese would call a GATT meeting at which to say what we agreed on in Geneva. R said he’s got a problem, because his Diet says he can’t enter into discussions. R said they are willing to enter into it when we can show that American industry has been harmed. R said you know that would be quite a while. K said the P’s impression is that Sato is willing to go far as long as it’s after the election. R said well, we still have a lot of bargaining power. R said we must get congressional approval. K said the P has broken his back to meet his commitment. R said we have lots of ways to put pressure on if necessary.

K said he had talked to Laird and Wheeler to make sure that they would support the P. K said we are going to have a tough time. K said that Stennis, Margaret Smith and _______4 were going to be tough on reversion. R said that was surprising about Smith, but he guessed she was just sticking to the military line. K said but Wheeler said he would be there and support us.

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 1030, Presidential/HAK Memcons, Textile Telcons, [Sept. 1969–June 1970] [2 of 2]. No classification marking.↩
  2. See Document 32.↩
  3. The comprehensive agreement to which Kissinger refers concerned textiles.↩
  4. Omission in source text. References are to Senators John Stennis (D–Mississippi) and Margaret Chase Smith (R–Maine).↩