190. Memorandum of Conversation1
PARTICIPANTS
- President Gerald R. Ford
- Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Secretary of State and Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
- Lt. General Brent Scowcroft, Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Kissinger: I met with Rabin yesterday in New York.2 He didn’t change his position. He said he couldn’t. He can’t ignore what you have said. But I think now we shouldn’t spill too much blood over an American interim plan. If you have to cram it down their throats, it may be better to go all the way.
President: When will we hear?
Kissinger: They will send someone back from Jerusalem with a map on Wednesday,3 after they have a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Even if they change, I would send the first position to Sadat, unless Eilts thinks it would cause a blowup.
[Omitted here is discussion unrelated to the Arab-Israeli dispute.]
President: How did the lunch in New York go?
Kissinger: Extremely well. It’s the best meeting with a Jewish group I have had.4 I told them that Jewish groups take the position that the U.S. is never right and Israel always is, and that is laying the basis for massive anti-Semitism here. I said: “You should be here as Americans, not as Israeli supporters.” I think two-thirds of them were enthusiastic. I will meet with them again and maybe you should meet with them.
President: I would like to.
Kissinger: Klutznick—the organizer—is something of a renegade.
[Omitted here is discussion unrelated to the Arab-Israeli dispute.]
- Source: Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Memoranda of Conversations, Box 12, June 16, 1975, Ford, Kissinger. Secret; Nodis. The meeting was held in the Oval Office at the White House.↩
- See Document 188.↩
- June 18.↩
- See Document 189.↩