Office of the Historian

92. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to Secretary of State Rogers and Secretary of Defense Laird1

Washington, September 4, 1971.
  • SUBJECT
    • National Security Aspects of Oil Pipeline from Alaska

The Department of the Interior is currently engaged in a comprehensive review of all aspects of the trans-Alaska pipeline proposal, as stated in the attached letter from the Department’s Acting Secretary.2

The President requests the Secretaries of State and Defense, in cooperation with other interested agencies, to assist in this review by developing a study identifying the national security considerations involved in the movement of oil by pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope. The Department of the Interior is requested to provide such background information as may be required. The study should include a national security comparison of the possible Alaskan and Canadian routes for the pipeline.3

The Departments are requested to forward the completed study to the Secretary of the Interior by October 1, 1971, with a copy to the White House. There should be no public discussion or announcement relating to the study.

Henry A. Kissinger
  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 367, Subject Files, Oil 1971. Confidential. A copy was sent to Morton and Volpe. A typed notation on the memorandum indicates it was dispatched on September 6.↩
  2. Not printed is the August 26 letter from Acting Secretary of the Interior W. Pecora to Kissinger.↩
  3. Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness George Lincoln was asked to coordinate the submissions of all participating agencies. (Memorandum from Kissinger to Lincoln, September 15; National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 367, Subject Files, Oil 1971)↩