140. Memorandum From Paul Henze of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski)1
SUBJECT
- Problems of Communism Still in Distress
Paul Smith asked to get together with me today and spent the greater part of a 1½ hour lunch and walk down Connecticut Avenue telling me about the troubles he is having keeping Problems of Communism (POC) going. It seems that the efforts we have been making to get across to John Reinhardt our concern that this publication receive the support it needs (I talked to him about it just two weeks ago) have been too subtle. POC is still operating with reduced staff (ICA is shifting slots to Third-World functions) and is being threatened with increasingly restrictive policy guidelines. ICA’s Plans Staff has now proposed that it be reduced from a bimonthly (it has always had six issues per year since its inception in the early 1950’s) to a quarterly. This is at a time when both the problems of the Communist world and our concern about them are increasing! And when the entire POC budget is under $300,000 per year!
Paul Smith, as you know, is an extremely knowledgeable, rational and motivated man who has maintained POC ’s quality and kept a respected staff on even keel since he took over as editor in 1972. He fought a skillful battle to keep Congress from killing POC a few years ago when it was fashionable to dismantle “Cold War leftovers.” He is [Page 404] dismayed by the present climate in ICA which he says is compounded of excessive orientation toward the Third World, an aversion to East-West issues and general bureaucratic ineptitude and lack of dynamic leadership. Since John Reinhardt has apparently not grasped the message I have given him three times orally about POC , I have drafted a forceful letter (Tab B)2 from you to him which should have some impact.
Recent Moscow and Belgrade Embassy comments on POC provide a good measure of its impact in these important target countries. (Tab A)3
RECOMMENDATION
That you sign the attached letter.
P. S. Paul Smith has a deep interest in Soviet minorities, a good many contacts with people working in this field and a wealth of ideas which can serve us well in our efforts to develop a more active program for work in this area. POC has its relevance for this effort, too.
- Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Staff Material, Horn/Special (Henze), Box 2, 7/78. Confidential. Sent for action.↩
- Attached but not printed is an undated letter from Brzezinski to Reinhardt. For the signed version of the letter, see Document 144.↩
- Attached but not printed are the undated Embassy comments.↩