Office of the Historian

115. Notes of Telephone Conversation Between the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) and the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (Smith)1 2

Washington, September 5, 1969, 12:20 p.m.

K said the President has agreed to go ahead with the 12-mile issue providing a proviso is included for arms control purposes (3-mile issue).

Smith had talked to the lawyers. If we could get the Soviets to put out a joint submission instead of getting something specifcally in the treaty would that be o.k. K said the agreement he had is that it should be in the treaty or as a footnote. Smith wanted to know if Mel knew and K said yes. The only issue we raised was the 12-mile one.

[Omitted here is discussion unrelated to seabeds.]

  1. Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, Box 360, Telephone Conversations, Chronological File, 1–18 September 1969. No classification marking.↩
  2. Kissinger informed Smith that the President had agreed to go ahead with the 12–mile limit if a proviso was included for arms control purposes.↩