213. Memorandum From the President’s Deputy Assistant for Domestic Affairs (Krogh) to the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Haig)1 2
SUBJECT:
- ILLICIT NARCOTICS AND THE SUMMITS
Russia and China are unlikely to respond favorably to a Presidential call for an international “Manhattan Project” to end drug abuse as suggested by Governor Rockefeller.
Neither nation now has a significant drug problem. Both rather smugly regard drug abuse as a manifestation of decadent Western culture. China still nurses a grudge over the Western role in introducing opium onto the mainland a hundred years ago.
While a massive Rockefeller-type program should not be proposed, it is important to our international control effort that drugs be discussed in general terms at both summits.
This more modest approach would probably prompt a favorable response. Neither Russia nor China is likely to be against narcotics control as a general proposition.
By securing a general agreement to work together wherever possible, the President would lay the groundwork for future meaningful cooperation. He would also add impetus to our diplomatic efforts to control narcotics production and trafficking in those Asian and European nations where Chinese and Russian attitudes weigh heavily.
At counterpart sessions it would be useful to delineate where increased cooperation might be possible. The pending Single Convention amendments, control of drug smuggling through Eastern and Western Europe, and our efforts to limit the production of opium in the Near East and the Golden Triangle are three such areas. Again, we should seek [Page 2] only a general expression of support for our initiatives.
It is important that reference be made to an agreement to cooperate on narcotics in the official press releases issued after each summit.
A more detailed analysis of the importance of discussing narcotics at the Peking meeting is contained in Nelson Gross’s memorandum at Tab “A”.
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 358, Subject Files, Narcotics IV. Secret. Tab A was attached but not published.↩
- Krogh informed Haig that neither the Soviet Union nor China would respond to a U.S. call for an international “Manhattan Project” designed to end drug abuse.↩