86. Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant to the President (Butterfield) to the Presidentʼs Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger)1 2
“Americans for Biafran Relief” is a broad-based bipartisan group with members ranging from Lukens and Fulton Lewis III to Congressmen Edward Koch and Richard Ottinger. They placed a full-page ad in the July 10th issue of the New York Times, the essence of which appears below:
The Biafra war has claimed more children than soldiers. President Nixon is already trying to end one war. Asking that he do something about another may be asking the impossible. But he is the President of the most powerful country in the world and thus is the only man there is to turn to.
After reading this account in his daily news summary, the President directed these comments to you:
“Henry, I agree with this. Moreover, I have decided that I (not State) should try to do something to conciliate the situation. Haile Selassie agrees. Please give me a plan.”
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 742, Country Files, Africa, Nigeria, Vol. I. No classification marking. An attached, but unpublished, memorandum from the Staff Secretary to Kissinger, July 15, asked that a plan of Presidential actions be submitted. A handwritten note on the memorandum states, “Roger Morris is preparing plan for HAKʼs approval, Aug 5.”↩
- Butterfield reported that the President, after reading in his daily news summary an advertisement placed in the New York Times by “Americans for Biafran Relief,” stated that he agreed with it and that he (not State) should do something about Biafra.↩