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Washington, D.C., May 26, 2004 - Five years after the National Security Archive initiated legal
action to compel the State Department and the National Archives to recover the transcripts of
Henry Kissinger's telephone calls from his "private" collection at the Library of Congress, the
National Archives today released approximately 20,000 declassified pages (10 cubic feet) of
these historic records, spanning Kissinger's tenure under President Nixon from 1969 to August
1974 as national security adviser and also as secretary of state beginning in September 1973.
To celebrate the public recovery of this previously sequestered history, the National Security
Archive today posted "The Kissinger Telcons," the 123rd Electronic Briefing Book in the
Archive's award-winning series. Highlights of the posting include ten of the telcons released
today.
The defense secretary wishes he could sweep under the rug the atrocity
photographs. The national security adviser agrees, but the newspapers already
have the photos. So they decide to blame the low-level officer, who must have
been insane.
Iraqi prisons? No, it's Melvin Laird and Henry Kissinger, trying to spin the My Lai massacre in
Vietnam. This 21 November 1969 telephone call transcript is one of the highlights of the
newly-released Kissinger telcons posted today by the National Security Archive. Others include
President Nixon ordering the massive bombing of Cambodia one night in December 1970,
followed by Kissinger laughing with aide Alexander Haig about Nixon's bluster and
agreeing to send a few B-52s instead. The posting also includes the Associated Press lead item,
in which Kissinger puts off the British prime minister's phone call to President Nixon because
Nixon was "loaded." Today's posting also includes a special section including a key
Kissinger telcon on Chile with more to come tomorrow.
The posting also includes ten Kissinger telcons previously obtained by Archive senior analyst
Dr. William Burr. The latter were among the thousands of pages officially released today, but we
found copies in other, previously released, Nixon administration files and are providing them
here as a sampler of things to come in the new release. These records feature conversations
New
with President Nixon, Motion Picture Association president Jack Valenti, and Chase Manhattan
Kissinger
Bank chairman David Rockefeller, among others.
Telcons
Released Today's posting also includes the full text of the finding aid to the Kissinger telcons
26 May collection, created by the Nixon Presidential Materials Staff of the National Archives and
2004
Records Administration. The finding aid describes the checkered history of the telcons as
The
Dobrynin
File:
"Happy
Birthday"
Henry
Kissinger
Kissinger
Telcons
Page
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follows:
In the late 1970s, a reporter [William Safire] and two organizations [the Reporters
Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Military Audit Project] sued to gain
access to the telcons under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The federal
district court and the US court of appeals both ruled that the documents were
government records becuase they were prepared on government time by
government employees. These lower courts stated that the State Department
telcons should be returned to the State Department and reviewed for release under
FOIA. In 1980, the Supreme Court, in Kissinger v. Reporters Committee
May 15,for
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telcons should be returned
Kissinger
Telcons
on Chile
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A week after Seymour Hersh had broken the story of the My Lai
massacre in the New York Times, Kissinger wanted to make sure that
Laird had a "game plane" so that the Pentagon was on "top" of the story.
Laird had known about My Lai since the spring but a witness had
gruesome photographs that were appearing in the press. Plainly May 15, 2016 10:48:50PM MDT
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Laird had known about My
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the bombing campaign he realized there was some chance that it could
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the bombing campaign he realized there was some chance that it could
jeopardize the Moscow summit with Brezhnev scheduled for Moscow
later in May. As this discussion shows, a meeting that Kissinger had
with Ambassador Dobrynin earlier in the day indicated that there would
be no problem. Employing language that Nixon liked to use, Kissinger
disdainfully reported that "Dobrynin was in slobbering over me."
Kissinger observed that the Soviets were not following the "peacenik"
textbook by "yelling and screaming" about the bombing; instead, they
found it more expedient to cultivate their relationship with the other
superpower. Unless the Soviets "screw us," Kissinger's secret visit,
slated for the following week, and the summit would go ahead.
Document 5: Kissinger and Soviet Ambassador to the U.S.
Anatoli Dobrynin, 15 December 1972, 5:41 p.m.
Source: Nixon Presidential Materials Project, Henry A. Kissinger
Telephone Conversations Transcripts, Anatoly Dobrynin File, Box 27,
File 7, 09
In late 1972, the Paris negotiations on the Vietnam War entered an
intense and frustrating stage where the North Vietnamese were
unwilling to accept conditions proposed by the U.S. on behalf of its
South Vietnamese ally. In the first two weeks of December, the talks
reached an impasse and were suspended, slated for resumption in early
January. Kissinger returned to Washington and North Vietnam's chief
negotiator Le Duc Tho headed to Moscow to convince the Soviets to put
pressure on Washington. Kissinger and Dobrynin discussed Tho's visit
to Moscow in condescending terms, with the former suggesting that Le
Duc Tho was coming to Moscow "crying on your shoulder." Once Tho
was in Moscow, Dobrynin joked, the Soviets would find out how "nice"
he was. While Dobrynin shared a laugh with his U.S.partner at the
expense of an ally, he did not realize that his American interlocutor did
not hold the Ambassador's position on Vietnam in high esteem and had
laughed with Nixon at a "slobbering" Dobrynin (See Document 4). The
Soviet ambassador might not have been quite so joking if he had known
that Nixon and Kissinger were making decisions to launch a bombing
campaign against North Vietnam. Through bombing the North, Nixon
and Kissinger hoped to persuade the recalcitrant Saigon regime that it
could rely on the Nixon administration to punish Hanoi in the event of
future violations of the peace agreement.
Document 6 : Kissinger and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, 3
January 1973, 4:00 p.m.
Source: Nixon Presidential Materials Project, Henry A. Kissinger
Telephone Conversations Transcripts, Chronological File, Box 17, 1973
2-6
During the December 1972 Christmas bombing," the Nixon White
House sought to destroy military targets in North Vietnam. Yet, some of
the targets were in Hanoi and precision bombing by high-flying B-52s
was impossible. In a notorious incident, bombs aimed at another target
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long before his confirmation hearings, Crewdson reported, KissingerMay 15, 2016 10:48:50PM MDT
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Vietnam in the 1940s had close contacts with the North VietnameseMay 15, 2016 10:48:50PM MDT
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Vietnam in the 1940s had close contacts with the North Vietnamese
and, as "Mr. S", cooperated with Kissinger as a secret intermediary.
Kissinger wanted Sainteny to meet with him in Washington later in the
month but found that this would involve taking on duties as a "tourist
agency" to make sure that the visit couldtake place.
Document 9: Kissinger and Motion Picture Association
President Jack Valenti, 15 October 1971 9:05 a.m.
Source: Nixon Presidential Materials Project. National Security Council
Files. HAK Office Files. Box 87. PRC Personal Requests 1971-73
Kissinger's key role in pulling off the U.S.-China rapprochement meant
that he would receive requests for favors and advice from friends in high
plaes. Not long before his second trip to Beijing, Kissinger received a
phone call from Jack Valenti. Wanting to develop exports of movies to
China, Valenti hoped that he could bring some movie stars to Beijing to
promote film, "a common link between people."
Document 10: Kissinger and Chase Manhattan Bank chairman
David Rockefeller, 13 March 1972, 11:12 a.m.
Source: Nixon Presidential Materials Project. National Security Council
Files. HAK Office Files. Box 87. PRC Personal Requests 1971-73
After congratulating Kissinger on some undisclosed triumph and
offering him a plane ride to the next Bilderberg meeting,
Rockefellerasked how he could get a visa to visit China. Kissinger was
not too surprised (the president of American Express was also trying to
get one) and said he would try to find out through "various channels." He
assured Rockefeller that the Chinese were "less hung up on the name
Rockefeller than the Russians. They don't think they're running the
country."
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National Archives and Records
Administration
Legal Documents
Henry Kissinger, Deed of Gift and Agreement with United States Library
of Congress, November 12, 1976, 6 pp.
Henry Kissinger, Second Deed of Gift and Agreement with United
States Library of Congress, December 24, 1976, 1 p.
National Security Archive to Archivist of the United States John W.
Carlin, January 15, 1999, 1 p.
Archivist of the United States John W. Carlin to National Security
Archive, January 21, 1999, 1 p.
Attorneys for National Security Archive to National Archives and
Records Administration and Department of State, January 25, 2001, 2
pp. [Encloses letter from State Department Spokesman James P. Rubin
to Archivist of the United States John W. Carlin, 2 pp.]
Complaint by National Security Archive presented to the Archivist of the
United States and the Secretary of State, January 25, 2001, 10 pp.
[Attachment to previous letter]
Attorneys for National Security Archive to Department of State, National
Archives and Records Administration, and Department of Justice, April
25, 2001, 3 pp.
United States Department of State Press Release, "Former Secretary of
State Kissinger Provides Department with Documents," August 8, 2001
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