112. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation1 2
K said he, had discussed Cousins trip with the President. Kʼs concern was that this is an unofficial trip and would have to be disavowable. Cousins fully understood this. K said we could make it clear as soon as we see wht the results would be.
Cousins suggested that the President issue a private letter explaining the hope that both sides will meet to negotiate. This would give him a clearance to proceed. K said the problem is that the President is willing to proceed but he doesnʼt want to put it in writing. Cousins said he (K) could advise him what to say and he would stay within the guidelines. K said we would like to see negotiations started and we would like to do what we can to bring it about. We donʼt want to make an official move until we see some progress.
Cousins asked him to review the paper with the talking points he sent and if they were o.k., he would stay within those margins. K didnʼt disagree with the substance and thought they would be fine. He mentioned again that the President didnʼt want letters (unofficial) floating around in case something should happen to Cousins. We would make it official as soon as there is an area to agree upon. We donʼt know what the results will be. This way we donʼt have to put it into formal channels.
Cousins said he would be discrete and would follow his talking points.
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 52, Country Files, Africa, “Cousins, Norman” Biafra. No classification marking.↩
- The Presidentʼs Assistant for National Security Affairs, Henry Kissinger, and Saturday Review editor Norman Cousins discussed Cousinsʼ upcoming trip to Nigeria. The trip would be unofficial. President Nixon did not want to put anything in writing—official involvement would come when there were potential areas of agreement.↩