270. Message From the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Scowcroft) to Secretary of State Kissinger1

Tohak.

1.
Dick Cheney called to tell me that the President wanted me to convene a meeting this morning to discuss the two controversial issues in your WFC speech: the size and degree of detail on the reserve, and the commitment to increase quantity of food aid. The President [Page 951] said he wanted to get views from all elements—the domestic side and economic side, as well as foreign policy. He asked that meeting include Rumsfield, CEA, State, Treasury, Agriculture, NSC, Seidman, and anyone else we thought was appropriate.
2.
He specifically requested more information on the 60 million ton figure for the reserve: was the 60 million made up of specific proportions of different grains, simply an overall total, or what? He also wanted data that would give him a framework for comparison of the significance of 60 million tons, such as total U.S. production of the grains in the reserve, total world production, U.S. exports, world consumption, etc.
3.
The President wanted the data and the views of each agency cabled out to him2 so he could make a decision. If he still had problems he plans to3 call a meeting on Sunday4 morning when he returns.
4.
Am trying to locate the relevant people now for a meeting at 9:00 a.m. I will chair and Enders and Hormats5 will carry the ball. Will keep you advised.

Warm regards.

  1. Source: Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Scowcroft Daily Work Files, Box 9, 11/1–5/74. Confidential; Eyes Only; Flash. The original is the text as approved for transmission before a Tohak number was assigned. Sent via Kissinger’s Special Assistants, L. Paul (Jerry) Bremer and David Gompert.
  2. President Ford spent November 2 campaigning in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Wichita, Kansas. (The New York Times, November 3, 1974, p. 24)
  3. An unidentified hand crossed out the word “would” and inserted “plans to.”
  4. November 3.
  5. An unidentified hand inserted Hormats’s name.