501–19

Conversation No. 501-19

Date: May 19, 1971
Time: 3:09 pm - 3:45 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Henry A. Kissinger.

Strategic Arms Limitation Talk [SALT] agreement
-Anatoliy F. Dobrynin
-Texts in Russian and English
-Announcement
-Delegation's knowledge
-Gerard C. Smith
-Meeting with delegation
-President's meeting
-Congressional leaders
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-Smith's report


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[Privacy]
[Duration: 11s ] Conv. No. 501-18 (cont.)


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

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President's schedule
-Meeting with SALT delegation
-Cabinet Room
-Possible trip to Midway
-William P. Rogers
-Possible leak
-Rogers
-Ellsworth F. Bunker [?]

Smith, Gen. Royal B. Allison, Paul J. Nitze, Harold Brown, Llewellyn E. (“Tommy”)
Thompson, Jr., and Philip J. Farley entered at 3:12 pm.

Greetings and introductions

President's previous meeting with Melvin R. Laird

Congress
-Upcoming vote
-Michael J. Mansfield Amendment

SALT
-Smith's schedule
-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
-Anti-ballistic missile [ABM] agreement
-Time-frame
-Effects
-Build-ups
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-Forward Base System [FBS]
-Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicle's [MIRV]
-USSR
-View on MIRV
-Defense systems
-Laird
-USSR
-Verification Conv. No. 501-19 (cont.)
-USSR arms
-USSR goals
-Technology
-President's press conference
-Strategy
-Desire for ABM agreement
-Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles [ICBM] program
-Party Congress
-Troop levels in Germany and Czechoslovakia
-State Department report
-Possibility of unilateral withdrawal
-Conventional forces in Europe
-European Security Conference
-Warsaw Pact
-North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]
-Dobrynin
-Possible reductions
-Political effect
-US
-USSR
-Great Britain


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[National Security]
[Duration: 1m 25s ]


DEFENSE


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
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SALT
-Progress of talks
-Compared with Vietnam Peace talks
-David K.E. Bruce Conv. No. 501-19 (cont.)
-USSR
-Goals
-Position
-US policy
-USSR
-Government bureaucracy
-Effect on decision-making
-Lack of public scrutiny
-Army
-Foreign Office

Foreign policy
-People's Republic of China [PRC]

[Unintelligible]

USSR and PRC relations
-US position
-Neutrality

USSR
-Suggested overture by US
-Ongoing negotiations
-Computers [?]
-Trucks
-Credit certification
-Kissinger’s efforts
-Aviation
-Possible purchase
-Kissinger’s call to Dobrynin
-South America
-Possible purchase
-Dobrynin
-Alaskan Airlines
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-American airplanes
-Inspections
-Department of Commerce action
-Certification
-Supersonic Transport [SST]
-White House

SST Conv. No. 501-19 (cont.)
-Tokyo
-Europe
-SST
-South America
-Effect
-Moscow to New York
-Kissinger
-Aviation Russian planes
-President's 1967 flight
-747's
-President's 1967 flight
-Russian plane
-Stewardesses

President's schedule
-May 21, 1971 meeting with delegation
-Laird

Weather
-Golf
-Burning Tree Country Club
-Water shortage
-Secretary of Agriculture [Clifford M. Hardin]
-Florida

President's schedule
-May 21, 1971 meeting

Kissinger, et al., left at 3:45 pm.
 47

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 9/08)