Office of the Historian

294. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, February 1, 1974, 8 a.m.
  • PARTICIPANTS
    • Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Secretary of State and Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
    • Dr. James R. Schlesinger, Secretary of Defense
    • Major General Brent Scowcroft, Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
    • Major General John Wickham, Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense

Schlesinger: Ten quick subjects. You talked to Clements about a visit to the Saudis.

Kissinger: No, no.

Schlesinger: The Saudis are behaving like shits. We shouldn’t cater to them.

Kissinger: They are adolescents. They think they can ship oil through the back door and still maintain the embargo. But I turned Clements off. Get a scorcher off to the Kuwaitis.

Schlesinger: We have been too easy on the Kuwaitis. We should tell them the next time they get a problem with the Iraqis, forget it.

Kissinger: The conservative Arabs have decided they can kick us around and get credit with the radicals and not suffer.

[Omitted here is discussion unrelated to oil.]

  1. Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, TS 35, Geopolitical Files, Saudi Arabia, Oct 73–Dec 74. Top Secret; Nodis. The meeting took place at Schlesinger’s office at the Pentagon.↩