Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXXVIII, Part 2, Organization and Management of Foreign Policy; Public Diplomacy, 1973–1976

145. Briefing Memorandum From the Acting Executive Secretary of the Department of State (Ortiz) and the Director of the Policy Planning Staff (Lord) to Secretary of State Kissinger¹

Washington, June 11, 1975.

SUBJECT

• Proposed New Format for Your Staff Meetings

You have indicated to Mr. Ingersoll your belief that some refocusing of your Principals and Regionals Staff Meetings would make these meetings more useful for all the participants. We have considered ways to make these meetings meatier and propose the following:

As Lord has already suggested, we should in any event revive the practice of holding periodic “analytical meetings” on major planning papers.² These are subjects which deserve an hour or so and the participation is limited to those directly interested. The first one, on the LDC challenge is scheduled for Wednesday, June 18.³

Without duplicating these kinds of sessions, we propose that most of your regular staff meetings should include a presentation by one of the participants on a substantive topic of sufficient broad significance to our foreign policy to warrant some general exchange for 15–20 minutes. Ideally such presentations and the discussions that would follow could open up your meetings to more intellectual exchange among your principal associates, as well as being more stimulating for you.

The topics to be presented would be determined beforehand by S/S and S/P in consultation with your staff. We also would solicit ideas from the participants. You would know beforehand what topic is to be raised. The presentation would be limited to 5–10 minutes, and would pose the issues in their broadest most significant terms. A short period of discussion would follow. The atmosphere should be informal. No papers would be involved.

Since the present meetings have real value to many participants as they now are constituted, we propose that you also continue to go around the table asking for comments on topics of current significance. The responses certainly can be more thoughtful than has been the case recently. But it is important—to alert you to problems, to provide guidance for your key staff members, and to give the seventh and sixth floors a continuing appreciation of the manner in which you want them to think about foreign policy issues.

In addition, we think it would be extremely helpful if on occasion you gave the group a brief rundown of your impressions of a major event or series of events, such as a trip or key visit—somewhat along the lines of your sessions with committees on the hill.

We are assuming that you have no objections to this procedure and are moving ahead. We are asking Mr. Habib to be ready to make the first presentation on the more significant policy issues he encountered during the course of his just-completed trip to the Far East.

1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Records of the Policy Planning Staff, Director’s Files (Winston Lord), 1969–77, Entry 5027, Jun 1–15, 1975. Limited Official Use. Printed from a copy that Ortiz did not initial.
2. In a June 5 memorandum to Kissinger, Lord noted that the quality of analytical work produced for the Secretary by Department bureaus showed “steady improvement” reflecting “the larger, encouraging phenomenon of ‘institutionalization’ taking place on the sixth and seventh floors.” Lord also recommended holding analytical meetings twice a month when Kissinger was in Washington. (Ibid.)
3. The meeting was held in New York where Kissinger was to discuss U.S. participation in the Seventh Special Session of the U.N. General Assembly. See Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, vol. XXXI, Foreign Economic Policy, 1973–1976, Document 295.