222. Telegram From Secretary of State Kissinger to the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Scowcroft)1

Hakto 9. 1. Please pass the following to the President and Haig only. There should be no further communications with anyone—especially Dinitz—until you are specifically instructed to do so.

2. I am relying upon you to see that absolute silence is maintained in Washington until the appropriate hour. Leaks, hints, or jubilation will ruin everything.

3. Message for the President follows:

A. After five hours I have agreed with Secretary General Brezhnev on a Security Council resolution which:

(1) Calls for a cease fire in place to be carried out within 12 hours of the adopting of the Security [Council Resolution?]

(2) Includes a call that Security Council Resolution 242 be implemented in all its parts and

(3) Contains the provision that, concurrently with the cease fire, negotiations between the parties would be started under appropriate auspices looking towards a final settlement.

B. We have also agreed that Malik and Scali at 6:00 p.m. New York time Sunday will call for a meeting of the Security Council to be held at 9:00 p.m. We agreed that the above resolution (text at paragraph I) would be jointly sponsored by the U.S. and the USSR. I will be informing the UK, French and Australian ambassadors here in a few hours2 so that we can get their full cooperation in the Security Council.

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C. In addition, two important understandings were agreed to between the Secretary General and myself:

1. That the negotiations between the parties would be under joint U.S.–USSR auspices as you instructed me to accomplish.

2. That the U.S. and the USSR will press for an immediate exchange of all prisoners of war.

D. This is a major accomplishment for the policy which you initiated a week ago. I hope the Israelis will, as they should, take this as a major victory. The settlement makes clear beyond any question that the U.S. is the dominant influence in the area without which nothing can be accomplished. It will stop the fighting with Israeli forces both in Syrian and Egyptian territory; there is absolutely no reference to 242; most important, we have finally achieved direct negotiations between the parties; we have Brezhnev’s pledge that he will produce the Arabs on a prisoner exchange; and most importantly, we have faced down the Soviets for all the world to see.

E. I suggest that simultaneously with the 6:00 p.m. joint U.S.–USSR request for a Security Council meeting, Ziegler make an announcement as follows:

“As a result of talks between Secretary General Brezhnev and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, I have directed Ambassador Scali to join with the Soviet UN representative, Mr. Malik, in requesting an immediate meeting of the Security Council this evening. The United States and the USSR have agreed on a resolution which will be submitted jointly to the Council this evening.”

F. Beyond this announcement, nothing should be said or hinted or the whole thing will come apart.

G. Gromyko and I will draft joint instructions to Scali and Malik.

H. Congratulations on your steadfastness.

I. Text of Security Council resolution we have agreed upon is as follows:

“The Security Council:

1. Calls upon all parties to the present fighting to cease all firing and terminate all military activity immediately, no later than 12 hours after the moment of the adoption of this decision, in the positions they now occupy.

2. Calls upon the parties concerned to start immediately after the cease fire the implementation of SC Resolution 242 in all of its parts.

3. Decides that immediately and concurrently with the cease fire, negotiations start between the parties concerned under appropriate [Page 643] auspices aimed at establishing a just and durable peace in the Middle East.”3

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 39, Kissinger Trip Files, HAK Trip—Moscow, Tel Aviv, London, HAKTO, SECTO, TOSEC, Misc., Oct. 20–23, 1973. Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only; Flash. Sent to Scowcroft for President Nixon.
  2. At 6:30 p.m., Kissinger met with the British, French, and Australian Ambassadors to the Soviet Union and informed them that he had met with the Soviet leaders for several hours since his arrival. He said that they had agreed to the text of a UN resolution which would be introduced in the Security Council at 9 p.m. (New York time) that night and that the United States and the Soviet Union would jointly call for a meeting of the Security Council at 6 p.m. New York time (1 a.m. Moscow time). The Secretary stated that he obviously could not tell their governments what to do, but he stressed that “anyone who was interested in a quick end to the fighting would presumably desist from trying to make amendments to this Resolution.” The memorandum of conversation, October 21, is ibid., Box 76, Country Files, Europe, USSR, KissingerTrip to Moscow, Tel Aviv & London, October 20–22, 1973.
  3. In telegram Tohak 63/WH32592, October 21, Scowcroft responded that the President had received Kissinger’s report and asked that he be given the following message immediately: “My warmest congratulations on yet another superb diplomatic achievement.” Scowcroft added his own “admiring congratulations.” (Ibid., Box 39, KissingerTrip Files, HAK Trip—Moscow, Tel Aviv, London, TOHAK 61–123, Oct. 20–23, 1973)