Office of the Historian

58. Memorandum From the President’s Military Assistant (Haig) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger)1

Washington, July 2, 1969.

SUBJECT

  • Talking Points for Meeting of the Washington Special Actions Group, July 2, 1969, 10:00 a.m.

Introduction

Introduce the meeting by outlining for group the purpose of the exercise which should include:

1.
An overall review of existing military contingency plans by the policy level group in order to:
a.
bring the group up to date on the menu of existing contingency plans in the event of emergencies similar to the EC–121 shootdown.
b.
enable this policy group to consider whether or not existing military plans are responsive to the most probable crisis situations that can develop over the short range.
c.
test these plans carefully in terms of their own technical suitability, i.e., levels of force, response time, impact on ability to react to concurrent crises elsewhere, impact on Vietnam conflict, etc.
d.
enable group to direct the development of additional military contingency plans where gaps appear as a result of the review.
e.
prepare an integrated game plan blending military and political actions to permit immediate response from a policy perspective in the event contingencies occur.
2.
Emphasize that the operation of the Washington Special Actions Group (WSAG) should not conflict with ongoing politico-military contingency planning done at the Interdepartmental level nor should it conflict in time of crisis with the operational implementation of the policy decisions which will emanate through the WSAG to the Department of State for implementation and interdepartmental coordination.
3.
Elicit discussion from the group on the objectives and charter of the WSAG.

[Omitted here is discussion of contingency planning for Korea.]

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–070, Washington Special Actions Group Meetings, May 1969–1971, Korea, 7/2/69. Top Secret; Sensitive; Eyes Only. Printed from an unsigned copy. The July 2 meeting was the WSAG’s first meeting.↩