272. Transcript of Telephone Conversation Between Secretary of State Kissinger and the Israeli Ambassador (Dinitz)1
K: Hello Mr. Ambassador.
D: Yes, Dr. Kissinger.
K: We are drafting a very tough reply and we are sending a copy of it, they are delivering it at 5:30 in the morning to keep Dobrynin up all night.
D: He is keeping us up why not him too.
K: If you want to come over and pick up a copy you can have it. We will not make you a proposal because we don’t think this is the time to offer any complicated solutions. Besides they will never accept it. They won’t accept the demilitarized zone. What we should consider is . . . What I’d like from you is your military assessment, your assessment of your military capabilities if the Soviets come in whether you can clean up that pocket quickly.
D: Clean up what Dr. Kissinger?
K: Get an Army quickly. And for God sakes be honest with me.
D: I have always been.
K: Get that to me in the morning.
[Page 746]D: Then I come now and pick it up. To which office, Scowcroft?
K: Yes, and you’ll see we’re not offering anything. All we are offering is that if they want to send up service in there we are willing to join together with them an observer force. As long as they are not combat troops and as long as there is a very small force. But we are not, and we’re very threatening and in addition we are moving the second carrier in the Mediterranean East, the one that was near Sicily is moving to Crete, the one that was in the Atlantic is moving into the Mediterranean. And we have increased, we are alerting our 82nd Airborne Division and our forces in Europe and we are moving things into a worldwide readiness posture and we’ll see now what happens.
D: Fine. So I’ll be coming now.
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, Kissinger Telephone Conversations, Transcripts (Telcons), Chronological File, Box 23. No classification marking.↩