262. Minutes of Washington Special Actions Group Meeting1
MEETING OF WSAG PRINCIPALS
PARTICIPANTS
- Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
- Richard Helms, Director of Central Intelligence
- David Packard, Deputy Secretary of Defense
- Gen. Earle Wheeler, Chairman JCS
- U. Alexis Johnson, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
- Richard T. Kennedy, NSC Staff
SUBJECT
- Cambodia
Johnson: We want a telegram to get the word on Parrot’s Beak to Lon Nol. The enemy already knows.
Kissinger: How much warning will this be?
Wheeler: I think they’ll start tonight.
Kissinger: Okay, send it. The best thing for Lon Nol to say is that he regrets it but he sees the necessity (Option D). We’ll say it begins the 28th or 29th.
Johnson: I will send if all approve.2
[Dr. Kissinger left the meeting at 10:15, and returned at 10:40.]3
Johnson: Bunker saw Thieu. The AK–47s will move tonight. They want radios for internal communication.
Wheeler: We are working on this.
Kissinger: Has Lon Nol given assurances on the Vietnamese?
Johnson: No, but he has agreed to a delegation. Thieu said OK.
Kissinger: We need to get assurances.
Johnson: They are working on this. Two GVN people arrived; the rest tomorrow. This is proceeding.
Kissinger: Are the carbines the same ones or additional?
Wheeler: In lieu of. Abrams will send these over from Saigon. Thieu might not agree to send others from his own stocks.
Johnson: He agreed to this. It’s better politically the other way, but this will be OK.
Kissinger: These are the same 15,000 and will be delivered by the GVN?
Wheeler: Yes.
Kissinger: What is Indonesia doing?
Johnson: The Malik initiative is moving forward.4
Wheeler: Abrams has plans to move UH–47’s to safe areas, but we need direct coordination with Cambodian authorities.
Kissinger: The President’s understanding is that from 352 north, whether or not there is a ground operation, the time of execution is to be ordered to be phased into other things.
Wheeler: Do we hold off on the other areas than Parrot’s Beak?
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–114, WSAG Minutes, Originals, 1969–1970. Secret; Sensitive. The meeting was held in the White House Situation Room.↩
- Not found.↩
- Brackets in the source text.↩
- Indonesian Foreign Minister Malik was organizing a conference of Asian states to support Cambodian neutrality.↩