Office of the Historian

134. Minutes of a National Security Council Review Group Meeting1

Washington, December 11, 1969, 11:05 a.m.–12:20 p.m.

SUBJECT

  • U.S. Policy Toward Post-De Gaulle France (NSSM 60)

PARTICIPATION

  • Chairman—Henry A. Kissinger
  • State
  • Richard F. Pedersen
  • William I. Cargo
  • Donald McHenry
  • Margaret Tibbetts
  • Defense
  • G. Warren Nutter
  • CIA
  • R. Jack Smith
  • JCS
  • Lt. Gen. F. T. Unger
  • OEP
  • Stephen A. Loftus
  • USIA
  • William H. Weathersby
  • NSC Staff
  • William G. Hyland
  • Robert E. Osgood
  • Richard T. Kennedy
  • Jeanne W. Davis

SUMMARY OF DECISIONS

1. That it was difficult to discuss France without an integrated European policy paper, and that Mr. Kissinger, with Messrs. Pedersen and Cargo, would consider how to develop such a paper for discussion in the NSC in January.

[Page 489]

2. That the French paper would be revised2 to cast the bilateral operational issues in the context of the Pompidou visit, and to:

—consider ways in which France might work out an arrangement within the framework of NATO (possibly bilaterally between France and SACEUR) on certain specific military issues;

—consider how we might react if we received many high-level soundings but no actual French proposal for tactical nuclear support;

—include a fuller explanation of the legal situation—the use of an Executive Order to provide warheads in a double-key system but the necessity for Congressional authorization to provide necessary training for the use of such weapons;

—examine the question of indirect assistance to nuclear weapons development and production in France including a statement of conflicting views.

3. Following receipt of the revised French paper, decide whether to have an NSC meeting on France, to submit the issues in a memorandum to the President, or to absorb the French issues in consideration of broader European policy issues.

[Omitted here is the discussion.]

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–111, Senior Review Group, SRG Minutes Originals 1969. Secret. The meeting took place in the White House Situation Room. The Review Group was considering the response to NSSM 60 (Document 133). A Department of State issues paper submitted to aid the discussion is in the National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–153, National Security Study Memoranda, NSSM 60.↩
  2. After Kissinger received a copy of the minutes he wrote a note on the covering memorandum: “When will we get this paper. Must have meeting before State runs with it.” (Memorandum from Davis to Kissinger, December 22; ibid., Box H–111, Senior Review Group, SRG Minutes Originals 1969) The revised paper was completed on January 16, 1970, and the Department of State submitted a “Summary of Military Issues” on February 2. (Ibid., Box H–153, National Security Study Memoranda, NSSM 60) Additionally, a January 26, 1970, study (Document 28) considered NSSMs 60 (Document 130), 65 (Document 20), 79 (Document 318), 83 (Document 24), and 84 (Document 25).↩