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  4. Document 51

51. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to Secretary of Defense Brown1

Washington, February 3, 1978

SUBJECT

  • Your Queries re SCC Meeting on Horn of Africa, January 26, 19782

REFERENCE

  • Your Memorandum to Me of February 2, 19783 (SecDef control no. X–0291)

The record of the SCC meeting shows that we talked about naval movements in both the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. It was noted that there were already plans for naval movements into the northwestern sector of the Indian Ocean in the next few weeks. George Brown also stated that it would be relatively easy to move some vessels from the Mediterranean down the Red Sea. I think we should study movements we could make both in the Indian Ocean (especially the Gulf of Aden) and the Red Sea. We do not want to decide now, however, what to do—we simply want to know what is feasible and how much time it would take.

As to your second point, you may well be right that little will come of our queries. How, exactly, they are made ought to depend on the local situation in each case. I should not think we would want to confine them to military intelligence channels if they could better be made by MAAG personnel.

Zbigniew Brzezinski
  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Council, Institutional Files 1977–1981, Box 184, SCC 055 Horn of Africa, 1/26/78. Secret; Sensitive.↩
  2. See Document 46.↩
  3. See Document 50.↩