319. Memorandum From the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality (Train) to the Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs (Ehrlichman)1 2
Subject:
- Chairmanship of Stockholm Delegation
Reference is made to an informal indication of the Secretary of State’s possible interest in heading the Stockholm delegation.
In my previous memorandum on this overall subject, I had indicated that the Secretary of State was the one member of the Cabinet who could chair the delegation without creating jurisdictional problems among the different agencies.
At the same time, there are strong reasons against the Secretary of State being designated formally as head of the delegation:
- 1.
- Insofar as I am aware, no foreign minister has been designated by any government as head of its Stockholm delegation. Sweden itself is chairing the entire conference with its Minister of Agriculture. France, Canada, U.K., Holland, Japan, Norway, Germany, Spain, etc., are all designating their chief environmental guy as head of delegation. At this late hour, to designate Rogers would throw all these other countries into a quandary.
- 2.
- Designation of the Secretary of State would signal a U.S. effort to shift the conference from a substantive environmental orientation to a political orientation. Such a step would seem particularly unfortunate in view of the continuing East-West disagreement over the status of East Germany. It seems to me that the commitment of the Secretary of State guarantees further politicizing of the conference in this respect.
Related to the latter point is the fact that apparently Stockholm will be the scene of various radical meetings during the Conference, including the so-called “People’s Lobby.” These groups evidently intend to charge the U.S. with “ecocide” in Southeast Asia. Whatever [Page 2] their plans, it seems clear that there will be a fair amount of radical political activity. The formal designation of the Secretary of State as head of the U.S. delegation would very likely serve to encourage and invite this kind of activity.
It would be perfectly appropriate and even desirable (depending upon the situation as it develops) for the Secretary of State to attend any part of the Conference that he wishes. He would in fact chair the U.S. delegation at any time he is so present. And he would be fully accepted as such by all parties. If he wished to attend the opening plenary session and speak for the U.S., that would be perfectly right and fitting and there would be no problem whatsoever about this. He would not have to be designated in advance as head of the delegation in order to do this. He simply chairs our delegation as a matter of course whenever he is present.
Thus, my strong recommendation is that the Secretary not be formally named Chairman of the U.S. delegation, that he retain all of his options during the next two months of East/West discussions, and then attend or not, speak for the U.S. or not, as the situation then dictates.
Chairman
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Agency Files, Box 217, CEQ II. No classification marking. Copies were sent to Kissinger and Whitaker. Printed from a copy that indicates that Train signed the original.↩
- Train recommended that Secretary of State Rogers not be designated as the head of the U.S. Delegation to the Stockholm Conference.↩