117. Memorandum From the Representative to the United Nations (Bush) to President Nixon1
New York, June 7, 1971.
PROGRESS REPORT ON SUGGESTION ABOUT MOVING UN AROUND
- 1.
- The Secretary General publicly endorsed the concept of Security Council meetings abroad from time to time.
- 2.
- Friday the French Ambassador, the President of the Security Council in July, told me he would like to schedule the July meeting (to deal with Oman) in Geneva—Progress!
- 3.
- There is resistance at some layers in the UN for having General Assembly Meetings abroad, namely due to cost, old habits, inconvenience of New York-based people, etc. I’ll keep plugging away at it. If they can hold Olympics around the world, they ought to be able to hold General Assembly Meetings.
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 301, Agency Files, USUN, Vol. VII. No classification marking. “The President has seen” is stamped on the memorandum. Attached memoranda indicate that this memorandum was sent to the National Security Council on June 9, to Kissinger on June 17, and to President Nixon on June 21. Another memorandum, dated June 11, noted that Marshall Wright had said that Bush’s report was a personal opinion. Although Wright had no objection to the Security Council meeting elsewhere, there would be logistical and budgetary problems in moving General Assembly meetings. Kissinger initialed his approval of a covering memorandum to the President, June 21, recommending a favorable response to holding Security Council meetings abroad but less so for General Assembly meetings. The June 21 memorandum from Kissinger to Nixon is stamped “The President has seen,” and bears a handwritten note from Nixon reading: “Good. Keep it up!”↩