Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–8, Documents on South Asia, 1973–1976

90. Telegram 264692 From the Department of State¹ ²

Washington, November 7, 1975, 2309Z.

Beirut also pass Baghdad: Military adees also for Polad

Subject:

• Diego Garcia

Ref

• (A) State 21793 dtg 122221z Sep 75; (B) State 177702 dtg 29221Z July 75.

1. By a vote of 51 to 44, the Senate adopted amendment by Sen. Culver (Iowa) to the FY 76 milcon appropriations bill which delays use of the 13.8 million dollars for Diego Garcia until July 1, 1976.

2. The text of the amendment reads: none of the funds appropriated in this act may be used prior to July 1976 for the purpose of carrying out any military construction project on the island of Diego Garcia. End quote.

3. Sen Culver said that deferral of the use of these funds would allow time to test the Soviets out regarding mutual arms restraint in this presently stable area of the world.

4. FY 75 funds are not affected. 18.1 million dollars is still available for use in construction project when UK approves the expansion agreement. We estimate that British approval may be received in approximately one month.

5. In joint conference on the State Department authorization bill (State omnibus), the members deleted amendment number 874 (reftel A). The Kennedy, Culver amendment which called for a full report the Diego Garcia evacuation issue. The members felt that a report the Department submitted to Congress on Oct 10 on this issue fulfilled this requirement.

6. The Kennedy-Bell-Cranston Amendment reported in reftel B was also deleted. This amendment expressed the sense of the Congress regarding arms limitation talks with the Soviet Union.

Kissigner

1. Source: National Archives, RG 84, Manama Embassy Files: Lot 79 F 118, DEF 15, Diego Garcia, 1976. Unclassified. This telegram was sent priority to the following posts: Abu Dhabi, Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Beirut, Blantyre, Cairo, Canberra, Cape Town, Colombo, Dacca, Dar es Salaam, Doha, The Hague, Hong Kong, Islamabad, Jakarta, Jidda, Kabul, Karachi, London, Katmandu, Khartoum, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Lisbon, Lourenco Marques, Lusaka, Manama, Manila, Mogadishu, Moscow, Muscat, Nairobi, NATO, New Delhi, Paris, Peking, Port Louis, Pretoria, Rangoon, Sana, Singapore, Tananarive, Tehran, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, USUN, Wellington, USCINCEUR, CINCLANT, CINCPAC, CINCPACFLT, CINCUSNAVEUR, COMIDEASTFOR.
2. In a circular telegram the Department alerted the posts in the Indian Ocean area of the favorable votes in the Senate on Diego Garcia funding, although fiscal-year 1976 funding was delayed.