Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–14, Part 1, Documents on the United Nations, 1973–1976

41. Memorandum From Hal Horan of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Scowcroft), Washington, February 26, 1976.¹ ²

Washington, February 26, 1976

NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL

February 26, 1976

MEMORANDUM FOR: Brent Scowcroft
FROM: Hal Horan [HH initialed]

SUBJECT: Your Telephone Call to Governor Scranton

Your office indicated you wanted to call Governor Scranton to indicate to him in general terms some of the UN issues that he might be questioned on in his upcoming contacts in the Congress. The major items I think are the following (I understand that he has begun contacts with State for detailed briefings):

--He will be asked if he intends to continue the tactics used by Moynihan in the United Nations. Not all the Congress supported these tactics. I should think Governor Scranton could respond that he intends to follow the policy of the President and the Secretary and that this was the same position that Ambassador Moynihan took. He can note that when the President announced his nomination, the President noted we had great responsibilities in the United Nations, that the Secretary’s speech to the Seventh Special Session made progress with the underdeveloped countries, and that the policy of the U.S. of standing up against some of the unfair attacks against us has been good from the point of view of the U.S.

--In a similar vein, he will be asked what his position is on the efforts of the Third World to politicize the UN in ways detrimental to the United States. He can reiterate that the President has made it clear that this trend disturbs us and that we intend to speak up for our interests and for what we believe in. He might be asked if there is a “ZAP” list in the State Department for countries who vote contrary to us in the United Nations and if he approves of such a list. He should indicate there is no such list, that the United States does take into consideration in its bilateral relations with individual countries how those countries and we relate in the multilateral field.

--He may be queried on the question of the U.S. contributions to the UN, both our mandatory assessment to the UN budget and our voluntary contributions to specialized agencies. There are pending in the Congress some resolutions that would call for us to decrease by a small percentage point on an annual basis our mandatory assessment which currently is 25%. On the basis of our capacity to pay, the U.S. assessment is less than that of other countries. In addition, when our assessment was lowered to the 25% figure several years ago by the United Nations, we agreed that we would not seek further reductions. We have also taken the position that we believe our budget requests this year for specialized agencies should not be cut.

--Governor Scranton may be asked about our letter of intent to withdraw from the ILO, whether we are serious about this, or whether this is being done merely to please George Meany. The letter of intent does represent the U.S. Government’s view, and in particular that of the President, and that we have sent it to the ILO in the hope that necessary reforms will be made in order that we can continue our membership. On this subject, Governor Scranton may be asked if the U.S. withdrawal from the ILO would signal a withdrawal from other UN agencies. Here I think Governor Scranton should indicate that the ILO is a unique agency, particularly its tripartite character, with unique problems.

--He will receive questions on the efforts in the UN to take punitive actions against Israel. Governor Scranton can say we will continue to oppose vigorously and rally others to oppose efforts to apply sanctions to, suspend or expel Israel in the United Nations and other international organizations, as well as opposing efforts to equate Zionism with racism.

-- On the Middle East and Cyprus, we will support the important peacekeeping efforts of the United Nations in the Middle East. The United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) in the Sinai and the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force on the Golan (UNDOF) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) [UNFICYP] are vital to the maintenance of peace and USG political, logistic and financial support for them should be continued. (Prime Minister Rabin made a special point of telling President Ford how pleased he was with UNEF and UNDOF.) The Secretary General has also played a very useful and cooperative role with respect to negotiations on Middle East questions and Cyprus, and we intend to continue working closely with him.

1. Source: Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Presidential Agency Files, Box 19, USUN 1/1/76–5/20/76. Confidential. Sent for information. Scowcroft initialed the memorandum and wrote “Thanks” at the top of the first page. Kissinger’s speech to the Seventh Special Session is published in Department of State Bulletin, September 22, 1975, pp. 425–441.
2. Horan provided background information for Scowcroft’s impending discussion with United Nations Ambassador-designate Scranton.