153. Minutes of an Ad Hoc Special Review Group Meeting1
Washington,
August 19, 1970, 4:10–5
p.m.
SUBJECT
- U.S. Military Assistance to Israel
PARTICIPANTS
- Chairman—Henry A. Kissinger
- State
- Joseph J. Sisco
- Mr. Alfred L. Atherton
- Defense
- David Packard
- Brig. Gen. John W. Baer
- CIA
- Richard Helms
- [name not declassified]
- JCS
- Adm. Thomas H. Moorer
- R. Adm. W.R. St. George
- NSC Staff
- Harold H. Saunders
- Richard T. Kennedy
- Jeanne W. Davis
SUMMARY OF DECISIONS
1. Defense will put together a package to support a strategy which would contain hostilities at the Canal (i.e., what Israel would need to discourage Egyptian crossing of the Canal), with the costs involved.2
2. We will meet informally with Israeli military officials to discuss strategy;3 this is not to be considered as “joint planning.”
3. State will prepare an analysis of what we could offer Israel in exchange for their agreement to return to mutually-accepted borders.4
[Omitted here are the minutes of the meeting.]
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–111, Senior Review Group, SRG Minutes Originals 1970. Secret; Nodis. All brackets are in the original except those indicating text omitted by the editors or that remains classified. The meeting was held in the White House Situation Room.↩
- Laird sent the study on the equipment package, “Further Response to N.S.S.M. 98,” to Kissinger on August 29, writing in the covering memorandum: “I recommend that N.S.S.M. 98 should be considered as a standby U.S. EYES ONLY document for use in case the cease-fire breaks down. As an alternative, I would recommend that any military discussions with the Israelis be directed toward their defense requirements following signature of a peace treaty and that in such discussions we be as forthcoming as possible. With this in mind, I have directed DOD planners, as a matter of urgency, to consider equipment packages which might be appropriate for Israel under the terms of a peace treaty calling for withdrawal to roughly the pre-1967 boundaries.” (Ibid., NSC Files, Box 607, Country Files, Middle East, Israel, Vol. VI)↩
- See Document 163.↩
- The paper, “U.S. Arms Assistance to Israel: Military and Diplomatic Options,” undated, is in the National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–047, Senior Review Group Meetings, Senior Review Group—Middle East 8/12/70.↩