Office of the Historian

76. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to President Carter1

Washington, March 2, 1979

SUBJECT

  • Your Meeting with Trudeau2 (U)

At Tab A3 is a State paper which provides appropriate background for the issues you and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau might discuss during your luncheon meeting on Saturday, March 3 (note that State mentions “May or June” for the Canadian elections, unaware of the March timeframe Trudeau suggested in his phone call to you last week).4 At Tab B,5 Henry Owen has provided some additional material on economic matters, particularly the bilateral energy focus. (U)

The primary political substance, so far as Trudeau is concerned, will be the fact of the meeting itself. He wants to remind the Canadian public that its country’s most important foreign connection is in good shape; he expects the visibility of his meeting with you to achieve that purpose—thereby winning him political points in his election campaign. Your willingness to meet him now, of course, should remove any pressure for a Presidential visit to Canada this year. (C)

Recent press play (notably Thursday’s front-page NYT piece6) has highlighted U.S.–Canadian energy relationships and the likelihood of Canada expanding its natural gas sales in the U.S. market. It will be helpful for you to raise the Alaska Pipeline issue with Trudeau, stressing the need to hold costs down in order to keep Congress in line; we count on working closely with the Canadians to that end. (C)

Among the larger international issues, I recommend that you emphasize Iran, the situation in Indochina, and our relationship with the Soviets. Regarding the latter, you should know that last week Canadian Ambassador Towe delivered a speech before the Minnesota State Legislature in which he expressed his government’s strong support for SALT II. This was the first public expression of Canada’s official position, and I believe it would be very useful for you to ask Trudeau to repeat it if and when you two meet briefly with the press following lunch.7 (C)

Should Trudeau bring up the subject of Guadeloupe8 and Canada’s “exclusion”, you can reiterate our views on this kind of meeting, noting a) the nuclear common denominator which brought these four nations together (three nuclear weapons states, plus the country at the heart of the European security problem); and b) the fact that Guadeloupe in no way infringed upon the scope of discussions likely to concern Canada at the Tokyo Summit. (C)

  1. Source: Carter Library, Country File, Box 7, Canada 1/78–9/79. Confidential. Sent for information. Carter initialed the top of the page.↩
  2. On March 3, Carter lunched alone with Trudeau in the Oval Office from 11:58 a.m. to 1:33 p.m. (Carter Library, President’s Daily Diary) No memorandum of conversation for their meeting has been found.↩
  3. Tab A, a paper entitled “Your Meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau in New York on March 3,” undated, is attached but not printed. Carter had initially planned to meet Trudeau in New York on March 3; see footnote 4.↩
  4. Trudeau called Carter on February 21 and informed him that he expected an election in March which would interfere with a potential visit to Canada by Carter. Trudeau suggested, and Carter agreed, that the two of them would meet privately in New York for dinner and a performance at Carnegie Hall by the Winnipeg Symphony. (Memorandum of conversation, February 21; Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 37, Memcons: President, 2–3/77; Allen Hughes, “A Symphony Concert That Pulls Out All the Stops,” New York Times, March 2, 1979, p. C11) In a February 21 memorandum to Carter, Brzezinski noted that he and Vance both opposed a visit by Carter to Canada until after the election. (Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Office File, Box 6, Country Chron, Canada, 1–6/79)↩
  5. Tab B, a memorandum from Owen to Carter, March 1, is attached but not printed.↩
  6. Reference is to Henry Giniger, “Canada Finds Rise of 28% in Gas Sales to U.S. is Feasible,” New York Times, March 1, 1979, pp. A1, D4.↩
  7. After their lunch, Carter and Trudeau made comments to the press. (“Meeting With Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau of Canada,” and “Joint Communiqué,” March 3; Public Papers: Carter, 1979, pp. 379–382)↩
  8. On January 5 and 6, 1979, President Carter joined Callaghan, Giscard, and Schmidt for informal meetings in Guadeloupe. See Documents 27 and 28.↩