Office of the Historian

162. Transcript of Telephone Conversation Between the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) and Secretary of Defense Laird1 2

Washington, November 18, 1969, 5:50 p.m.

[Omitted here is unrelated material.]

K said on the CBW thing … L said don’t call it CBW, that’s what the opponents call it. K said anyway, he would run that guidance past L. K wanted to make sure it’s what L had in mind. K asked L if he could send over some legislative strategy. L said the problem is this has never been done—L has been working on this for 16 years, and they’ve never been able to get anybody to address himself to this. L said this would be useful—it’s important to develop a few positions down the line like this. K said he would send over a draft. L said both on public affairs and legislative side. Then we can issue instructions, and L thinks we can keep everybody quiet until this thing comes out. L said they would try to get it released this weekend.

K asked if L went along with the Geneva protocol thing; L said yes, but we shouldn’t get tear gas mixed up with the protocol thing. K said he would make sure in the NSDM to leave no doubt about the President’s feeling about that. K asked if L had noticed what K put out yesterday on ABM. L said yes, very good.

  1. Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, Box 361, Telephone Conversations, Chronological File, November 18–28, 1969. No classification marking.↩
  2. The conversation dealt with follow-up to the NSC meeting and the possible draft of a legislative strategy to address the CBW.↩