Office of the Historian

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

Moscow, October 24, 1974, 1631Z.

Hakto 4. 1. The Department has asked me to send a memo to the White House on the South African question at the UN (Tosec 43).2 For obvious reasons, this is a matter best handled orally. I have discussed it with the President and he has agreed with my recommendation that we veto the expulsion of South Africa, if necessary.3

2. Warm regards.

  1. Source: Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Presidential Trip Files, Box 4, November 1974, Hakto (1). Secret; Sensitive; Eyes Only; Immediate. Kissinger was in Moscow for meetings with Brezhnev, Gromyko, and other Soviet officials.↩
  2. Dated October 23. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy Files, D740303–0048)↩
  3. The Security Council debated the issue of South Africa’s expulsion October 18–30. A draft resolution recommending immediate expulsion was not adopted (the United States, United Kingdom, and France voted against the resolution), however, the General Assembly suspended South Africa from the twenty-ninth session on November 12. (Yearbook of the United Nations, 1974, pp. 106–117)↩