Office of the Historian

112. Summary of Conclusions of a Special Coordination Committee Meeting1

Washington, December 6, 1979, 9–10 a.m.

SUBJECT

  • Iran

PARTICIPANTS

  • State

    • Secretary Cyrus Vance
    • Warren Christopher
    • David Newsom
    • Harold Saunders

  • Defense

    • Secretary Harold Brown
    • W. Graham Claytor

  • JCS

    • General Lew Allen
    • General John Pustay

  • CIA

    • Admiral Stansfield Turner
    • Frank Carlucci

  • Justice

    • Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti**
    • **Present for domestic issues only.

  • Energy

    • John Sawhill**

  • White House

    • Jody Powell
    • Lloyd Cutler**
    • Hedley Donovan
    • Zbigniew Brzezinski
    • David Aaron

  • NSC

    • Colonel William Odom
    • Gary Sick

SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS

[Omitted here is material unrelated to Libya.]

6. Libya. We continue to hear rumors that Qadhafi may order an oil cutback. Many of the same companies are affected as were affected [Page 280] by the Iran situation. The companies want us to maintain some American presence in Libya, but they do not object to a considerable reduction as planned. If there is a cutback, we will need to reallocate supplies. This is complicated because the Libyan oil is such high quality. Energy is examining options.2 (S)

Political-Military Issues:

[Omitted here is material unrelated to Libya.]

3. AWACS. The aircraft will arrive tomorrow morning. After the arrival, we will notify our allies and the Saudis.3 The SCC agreed that it would be useful to treat this deployment as a routine training operation, stressing that these units would be training with U.S. forces in the Mediterranean and that the aircraft would visit U.S. facilities elsewhere in the region during the deployment. In that regard, it was recommended that we approach the Italians for landing rights in Signonella, Sicily, at the time of notification. Because of the possible implications of U.S. support for Egypt against Libya, we will stress that this was planned before the recent events in Libya. We would anticipate the AWACS aircraft remaining about two weeks in Egypt. Defense is drafting a statement which can be used following notification of allies. This will be discussed further today for consideration at the meeting tomorrow.4 (S)

[Omitted here is material unrelated to Libya.]

  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Council, Institutional Files, Box 106, SCC 221, 12/06/79, Iran. Secret. The meeting took place in the White House Situation Room. Minutes of the meeting were not found. Carter initialed and wrote “Zbig” in the upper right-hand corner.↩
  2. Carter wrote in the left-hand margin: “I want extra efforts made to enhance relations with all AOPEC nations. (I assume US embassy ? in Libya will be resolved).”↩
  3. Carter wrote in the left-hand margin: “Assess advisability of also notifying Libya.” The aircraft were deployed to Egypt.↩
  4. Carter underlined “about two weeks” and wrote in the left-hand margin: “They will stay as long as needed.” Brzezinski placed an asterisk at the end of this paragraph and wrote beneath the last item: “* Subsequent to the meeting, the President approved a 48-hr. holdover in Signonella, to disassociate the Egyptian deployment from the U.S.-Libya problem. (10:30 a.m. by telephone with Z.B.) ZB.”↩