Office of the Historian

323. Transcript of Telephone Conversation Between the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) and the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (Smith)1 2

Washington, June 16, 1971, 10:35 a.m.

K: Gerry?

S: Henry, on this piece of paper Dobrynin passed yesterday, is there anything else one can know about it?

K: I have told you everything I know. We deliberately didn’t go into any discussion. He said we should look at it favorably. The President said we would study it and reply through normal channels.

S: Is this why he is seeing the Secretary today?

K: He is seeing the Secretary as far as I know from Dobrynin—given the great communication within our bureaucracy—on MBFR.

S: I thought I would make some suggestions to the Secretary in case this comes up.

K: Would you send me a copy? We did not arrange this. We are not dying for a five-power conference, and the President’s instinct is to treat it in the most dilatory way.

S: Something constructive might be squeezed out of it.

K: Could you do a memo for the President of what your view is on the matter.

S: I will get it over today.

K: It literally took five minutes. There was no substantive discussion partly you will be pleased to know, because I didn’t know how the hell to play it.

S: It’s a difficult one to react to quickly. If Rogers is asked anything about it, he should say we will study the paper. Okay, Henry, I will send you something today.

  1. Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, Box 368, Telephone Conversations, Chronological File, 14–18 June 1971. No classification marking.↩
  2. Kissinger and Smith briefly discussed Ambassador Dobrynin’s visit to the President the day before and the Soviet proposal for five-power conference on nuclear disarmament.↩