317. Editorial Note
On August 25, 1971, Secretary of State Rogers met Ambassador Rush at 11 a.m. in the Department of State for consultation on the Berlin negotiations; Assistant Secretary Hillenbrand, Director of the Office of Central European Affairs Sutterlin, and Acting Legal Adviser Brower joined the meeting shortly thereafter. (Appointment Book; Personal Papers of William P. Rogers) Although no record has been found, Sutterlin later published an account of this “decidedly cool meeting”:
“The secretary, when he saw Ambassador Rush (for whom he had no great admiration, although he later accepted him as his deputy), was not deeply concerned about the Soviet consulate general, in which he had concurred in the earlier memorandum to the president. Nor did he express reservations about any portion of the text as agreed. He recalled that he had earlier admonished the ambassador to take the final step ‘with all due deliberation,’ and noted that the ambassador had done the opposite and in the process exceeded his instructions. The secretary’s concern was whether the agreement as reached would leave the president vulnerable to domestic political attack. He considered it a major responsibility, which he bore, to protect the president from such an eventuality. Ambassador Rush gave a spirited defense both of the agreement and his negotiating technique, emphasizing the necessity of taking full advantage of the negotiating momentum that had developed. He did not reveal that he had been acting under separate instructions from the White House.” (Sutterlin and Klein, Berlin, pages 112–113)
During the meeting, Assistant to the President Kissinger and Attorney General Mitchell, who were both with President Nixon in San Clemente, discussed the situation by telephone. Kissinger asked Mitchell, a personal friend of Rush, to intervene.
[Page 897]“K: You didn’t talk to Rush did you?
“M: I haven’t been able to.
“K: Our problem is that he got in last night and due to some bureaucratic foul-up I didn’t get through to him. Now he is with Rogers.
“M: You planned to talk to him?
“K: Yes. I wanted to get the President and Rush some credit out of this and wanted him to come out here.
“M: I recommended that last Sunday to Haldeman, that he give some thought to it. You want me to call Rush?
“K: I wonder if there is any chance of your interrupting him while he’s in with the Secretary before he agreed to any publicity and our desire is to give it to the President a little bit if you can say that in a complicated way.
“M: Let me see if I can get a call through.
“K: Okay, will you call me back?
“M: Sure will.” (National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 57, Country Files, Europe, Berlin and European Security, Vol. II [2 of 2])
As Rush later recalled: “We were in the middle of a rather heated argument about the whole thing when a telephone call came from John Mitchell out at San Clemente: the President wanted to see me there.” (Rush, “An Ambassador’s Perspective,” in Thompson, ed., The Nixon Presidency, page 339) Mitchell then called Kissinger back.
“M: I got him out of the meeting and got the message to him. He is not [omission in the source text] at the moment, but he understands and will get back and talk with you.
“K: And he won’t build up Rogers?
“M: He understands. There’s no telling whether Rogers will build up himself.
“K: But he understands.
“M: Yes. I told him to get in touch with you as soon as he reasonably can. He didn’t know whether he could call from State. I told him to go to Justice or the White House.
“K: You’re fantastic.
“M: Undeniably. I’ll bet you ten bucks Rogers had someone listening in on that call. But we’ll find out, won’t we?
“K: Thank you.” (National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 57, Country Files, Europe, Berlin and European Security, Vol. II [2 of 2])
According to Sutterlin, Rogers also received a telephone call during the meeting, “which he took in private as was his custom.” Although White House Chief of Staff Haldeman may have called, as [Page 898] Sutterlin presumed, Rogers’ Appointment Book (Personal Papers of William P. Rogers) only records a call from Robert McCloskey, the Department spokesman. The Secretary “gave no indication,” Sutterlin continued, “but he did not return to his earlier questions about political fall out from the agreement.” (Sutterlin and Klein, Berlin, pages 112–113)