155. Memorandum From the Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department of State (Brewster) to Secretary of State Rogers1
You will recall that on June 10 Mr. Kissinger issued NSDM 112 regarding country programming (Tab A)2 and an explanatory memorandum of the NSDM (Tab B).3 Ted established that this had been issued without any advance consultation with us, and even though it was a NSDM instead of a NSSM, felt that the instruction cut across what we were doing here, at the President’s direction, to establish a [Page 324] coordinator for security assistance at the Under Secretary level. On June 12 Ted spoke to General Haig and said that he regretted we were not consulted, that we had serious substantive and legislative problems with this, and that we were taking no further action pending further consultation. General Haig subsequently called Ted back and said that Mr. Kissinger agreed that this inter-agency consultation should be done and that all addressees would be informed not to implement NSDM 112 until after this consultation had been completed.
This morning, at Mr. Irwin’s suggestion, I informed Colonel Kennedy (who is sitting in for General Haig) that you regarded NSDM 112 as covered by your agreement with Mr. Kissinger4 and that the Department would take no further action on it unless they wished to discuss the matter with you. Colonel Kennedy called me this afternoon to say that Dr. Kissinger understood his agreement to refer to Interdepartmental Groups and such matters and not this specific matter (which is a NSDM rather than a NSSM). I reiterated that Henry should call you.
I assume Mr. Kissinger may be calling you on this, and have included at Tab C5 the main reasons why NSDM 112 as it now stands is objectionable to us.
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL 2. Confidential; Eyes Only. Rogers wrote at the top of the memorandum: “Bob—Where do we stand on this?”↩
- Document 151. ↩
- Attached but not printed.↩
- See Document 143. ↩
- Attached but not printed.↩