Office of the Historian

206. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, July 8, 1975, 10:15–10:55 a.m.

PARTICIPANTS

  • The President
  • Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Secretary of State and Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
  • Lt. General Brent Scowcroft, Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs

[Omitted here is discussion unrelated to the Arab-Israeli dispute.]

Kissinger: Let me show you the Dinitz proposal.2

—The line in the south has been changed but it is still not satisfactory.

—The shift in the line north and south of the passes puts the passes in a bag.

—They want the Israelis to be left at Umm Khisheiba.

If they move the line west from what Egypt has already seen, I think it would be hopeless. How would it look to the Egyptian masses? What can Sadat say he got?

The President: I think we have to tell them we can’t buy it. If they want to do it, that’s it.

Kissinger: I am getting to the point of thinking it can’t be done, that we tried and we have to move to a comprehensive proposal.

The President: I think we have to demonstrate we offered the four warning points, to show the American people we made an effort.

[Page 775]

Kissinger: They will say they did everything we asked, got out of the passes, and it still didn’t work.

I think you should go on television and lay out the situation. Don’t blame Israel. Say we will give military support to Israel, but not enough to sustain them in this position.

The President: Did Dinitz ask about aid?

Kissinger: Yes. I mentioned at Caneel Bay3 that they could get under $2 billion with a satisfactory settlement. I mentioned maybe $1.7 billion. He said yesterday that was unsatisfactory.

The President: I was thinking in terms of $1 billion.

Kissinger: If there is nothing, I would go with $700 million.

The President: I would say it is unsatisfactory and they must do better.

Kissinger: I will see Rabin on Saturday in Germany.

[Omitted here is discussion unrelated to the Arab-Israeli dispute.]

  1. Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, CL 282, President’s File, July 1975, Folder 1. Secret; Nodis. The meeting was held in the Oval Office at the White House.↩
  2. The proposal is the referenced map in footnote 5, Document 202.↩
  3. See Document 202.↩