Office of the Historian

512. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) to President Johnson1

Washington, December 16, 1965, 9:30 a.m.

SUBJECT

  • The Wilson Visit

You currently have three meetings with Wilson: 5:15 today (1–1/2 hours), lunch at 1:00 tomorrow with a small working group, and a third meeting, with a communique, at 4 p.m. tomorrow.

There are six main subjects which I list in the order of their importance to the British:

1.
Rhodesia
2.
The British defense review
3.
Vietnam and Malaysia
4.
India/Pakistan
5.
Non-proliferation and East/West relations
6.
Nuclear arrangements with the Germans

Dean Rusk will be here tomorrow morning but not before, and for this reason I think you might wish to save Vietnam, Soviet relations, and nuclear arrangements with the Germans until tomorrow. That would leave Rhodesia, British defense, and India/Pakistan for this afternoon.

[Page 871]

(1) Rhodesia

This is Wilson’s make-or-break issue. He must go the limit to break Smith without shooting, and we are not at all sure he can do it. So far we have given full support on economic measures, including airlift support for oil to Zambia. But Wilson may use this meeting to lay the basis for more: in particular, he may feel us out on help to keep Zambian copper moving or even for access to U.S. stockpile copper. We have resisted any such feelers, and you may want to hear George Ball on this subject.

[Here follows discussion of unrelated topics.]

  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, United Kingdom, PM Wilson Visit, 2/17/65. Secret.↩