22. Editorial Note
On October 31, 1975, former Ambassador to Thailand William Kintner sent an Executive Summary and Summary Report of his study on “U.S. Policy Interests in the Asian-Pacific Area” to Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Brent Scowcroft. On January 15, 1976, Thomas Barnes of the National Security Council Staff forwarded it to Scowcroft under a covering memorandum that stated, “The study is a notable achievement in that it is the first comprehensive review of our Asian posture. While many of its judgments are sound, it reflects much of the traditional hard-line Kintner approach about the Soviet Union, which features more prominently than actual Soviet presence and influence in Asia would dictate.” (Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Presidential Country Files for East Asia and the Pacific, Box 1, Ambassador Kintner’s Study of U.S. Policy Interest in the Asian-Pacific Area)
Kintner’s executive summary attached to Barnes’ memorandum “rationalizes a continued US presence in the various subregions of the area with a reduced, modified, but not insignificant, military presence. It proposes a concept of economic development for Southeast Asia by providing transfers of real resources through the creation of financial consortia for given countries involving governments (including OPEC members), international financial organizations and private banks. It calls for a major campaign to deal with the food-population syndrome in Southeast Asia. The study underscores the need for a strong and more creative cultural-psychological effort to offset the impression that the US is losing interest in that part of the world where its previous policies ended so calamitously.”