Office of the Historian

307. Transcript of Telephone Conversation Between the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Haig) and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Moorer)1

Washington, May 25, 1972, 1:50 p.m.

H: I am sorry to bother you. I have about ten minutes to get back to Moscow. The Soviets have come in with a “compromise.” What they offered to do is to return to the 740 limit that Gerry Smith talked about yesterday and to include the Y and H classes at the starting point and categorize them as modern nuclear powered. It would exclude the G class. Henry asked us to go around and take a check of the position taken this morning to see if we could modify that position. If the Soviets under this compromise don’t retire their …

M: They could have 85 submarines and 1,000—I don’t think we can compromise with them.

H: Or if they decide to get rid of G they could keep 70 SS–8’s.

M: I think we are going to have a hard enough time with what we’ve got.

H: That’s the position Mr. Rush took2 but I just wanted to touch base with you.

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 999, Alexander M. Haig Chronological Files, Haig Telcons, 1972. No classification marking.↩
  2. See Document 306.↩