214. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to the Chairman of the National Security Council’s Under Secretaries Committee (Richardson)1

SUBJECT

  • Personnel Reductions in the Philippines

The President has directed an immediate one-third reduction in the civilian and military personnel stationed at Clark Field in the Philippines. Secretary Laird has been informed of this directive and has agreed to submit a detailed plan for the reductions by April 20. They are to be completed by September 1, 1970. The Defense Department has been asked to coordinate with the State Department prior to submitting the plan.

In addition, the President has asked that other civilian and military personnel of all agencies in the Philippines be reduced 25 percent. These reductions should be completed as soon as possible and in no case later than June 30, 1971. The Under Secretaries Committee should consider how they are to be effected and report to the President on the schedule for carrying them out.2 The report should consider their implications for U.S.-Philippine relations and for the U.S. strategic position in the Pacific. It should also reach the President by April 20.3

Henry A. Kissinger
  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 556, Country Files, Far East, Philippines, Vol. II. Secret; Exdis.
  2. Richardson sent an April 10 memorandum to the members of the committee, requesting them to carry out the President’s instructions and noting that an ad hoc group had already been established by his memorandum of March 31. Both memoranda are attached but not printed. The Embassy was advised of the President’s decision in telegram 48653 to Manila, April 3. (Ibid.)
  3. A marginal notation in unidentified handwriting reads: “Now slipped a week.”