Office of the Historian

31. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Trezise) to the Executive Director of the Cabinet Task Force on Oil Import Control (Areeda)1

Washington, December 17, 1969.

I am enclosing a statement which Secretary Rogers wishes to have incorporated in the Task Force Report. I leave to your discretion where the statement should be placed, but it seems to me that it might be handled as a footnote after the first sentence in paragraph 424–A.

Philip H. Trezise

Attachment

Statement by Secretary of State William Rogers

The Department of State considers that changes in the oil import system are required and that the proposed new system represents a move in a desirable direction. It wishes, however, to emphasize that basic changes in an oil import program of long standing might provoke serious adverse reactions which could have an important bearing on national security. Before final decisions are made therefore this consideration should be taken into account. Consultations with other governments with respect to the proposed changes can take place only after this report has been submitted to the President. The Department therefore joins in the Task Force report subject to the reservation that [Page 77] full consultations with other governments will be necessary to enable it fully to assess the national security and foreign policy ramifications of the proposed changes and the Department may submit to the President further suggestions for and amendments to the program in the light of those security considerations.

  1. Source: National Archives, RG 220, Records of the Cabinet Task Force on Oil Import Control, Entry 10, Box 4, Classified Documents, Confidential Comment on Draft Task Force Report, 12/12/1969. No classification marking. This memorandum represented the final State Department contribution to revisions of X–2.↩