Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–6, Documents on Africa, 1973–1976

45. Minutes of the Secretary of State’s Staff Meeting¹ ²

Washington, May 14, 1976, 8 a.m.

Present were:

• D—Mr. Robinson
• P—Mr. Sisco
• AF—Mr. Schaufele
• ARA—Mr. Robers
• EA—Mr. Habib
• EUR—Mr. Hartman
• NEA—Mr. Atherton
• INR—Mr. Saunders
• S/P—Mf. Bartholomew, Acting
• EB—Mr. Greenwald S/PRS—Mr. Funseth
• PM—Mr. Vest
• IO—Mr. Lewis
• L—Ambassador McCloskey
• S—Mr. Leigh
• S/S—Mr. Springsteen
• And others.

[Omitted here are portions of the discussion unrelated to Africa.]

MR. ROBINSON:

And on the overall aid to Africa program, I met with McNamara. I am meeting again with him on Monday and we are trying to pull together a coordinated program which will be generally along the lines that Giscard has proposed—but one that I think is more practical in the terms of how it—

THE SECRETARY: We also need a Sahel Program.

MR. ROBINSON: This, I have talked about with McNamara, and he will give us an answer on Monday as to the extent to which the World Bank—

THE SECRETARY: Are we going to have an American program?

MR. SCHAUFELE: We have an American program.

THE SECRETARY: No, we don’t have an American program. If it’s old it is no program. I have yet to see anything on Africa that is useful.

I want something that is made relevant to the various initiatitves that are put forward, and I haven’t seen any of these AID programs that are responsive to what we have proposed.

MR. ROBINSON: I have talked to AF about this and we—

THE SECRETARY: But we need something that we can say is related to what we have been talking about.

MR. ROBINSON: We will have that.

THE SECRETARY: But we have to have it soon.

MR. SCHAUFELE:—the original Parker Memorandum.

THE SECRETARY: There is an NSC study going on. Is that going through your I.G.?

MR. SCHAUFELE: Yes, sir.

THE SECRETARY: Well but can you put some push behind it so that we get a response in about two or three weeks?

MR. ROBINSON: We expect to have something before that.

THE SECRETARY: And it ought to have some of these regional efforts that you were talking about.

MR. ROBINSON: These are being integrated into that.

THE SECRETARY: Will you supervise—will somebody get AID under control?

MR. ROBINSON: I will supervise.

We will make an effort—we will get them under control. But we also have to integrate our plan with the one that Giscard has—

THE SECRETARY: But we sure as hell can’t integrate it if we don’t have it.

MR. ROBINSON: We are going to have it.

THE SECRETARY: I agree. We ought to integrate with Giscard, we ought to talk about it, we ought to set up a groupment with the French.

MR. ROBINSON: Actually, that originated from my discussions with Sauvagnargues, the last time I was there, when I proposed this integrated approach, and then they took off on a common fund. But within the broad outline of their plan, I think this is something that could be very helpful.

THE SECRETARY: You don’t think it is workable?

MR. GREENWALD: I don’t think the common fund is—the French are going to lead, and organize for us and I don’t think that will do us any good.

I think what I would rather do is go and tell them all the substantive things you have suggested—and that would be fine, but just don’t lead us into another new international institution—

The same way Fourcade commented on our own proposal. [Laughter.]

THE SECRETARY: Except that it is useful to have Africans grouped together in some enterprise.

MR. GREENWALD: O.K., but not under the French. Not under French tutelage or French dominance.

THE SECRETARY: Well what does “French tutelage” mean?

I think if the French organize a donor group and as a recipient group, I think that is better than if we organized it. They don’t have the firepower to do anything without us. I think it is better for us in Western Europe and better for us in Africa.

MR. GREENWALD: Have we contributed to this—have we a possibility to contribute to a—you mean another fund in Africa?

MR. ROBINSON: This is a question of integrating—

THE SECRETARY: I am not saying we should contribute. We could put bilateral programs together and put them in the fund.

MR. ROBINSON: Yes.

THE SECRETARY: But what we need is a common policy, and I don’t want this thing nitpicked to death.

MR. ROBINSON: No, in fact as I say, I proposed this to Sauvagnargues, the last time I met with him and this is an idea that I am—

THE SECRETARY: I am not offended by French leadership in such an effort. There isn’t that much—I think it is useful if we are not in the front line in Africa.

MR. ROBINSON: I think we have to get it into a form that is realistic from the standpoint of—

THE SECRETARY: That’s right, but with that we don’t have to kick it all over the place.

MR. ROBINSON: No, I agree.

THE SECREATRY: But could I ask, before I leave, for a memo that explains exactly what we are doing in our African policy with firm deadlines? And by June 1st that all are met before I go off to the OAS meeting?

MR. ROBINSON: And we will have a preliminary paper before you meet with Giscard on Monday.

THE SECRETARY: All right.

But I would like to have some idea of the kind of programs we are thinking of, and their scale, and how much of it can be multilateral, and how much additional we need.

Am I meeting Giscard separate from the President? No.

COMMENT: I don’t believe so.

[Omitted here are portions of the discussion unrelated to Africa.]

1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Transcripts of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s Staff Meetings, 1973–1977, Entry 5177, Box 10, May 14, 1976. Secret. Kissinger’s reference to a NSC study is presumably referring to NSSM 241, “U.S. Policy in Southern Africa,” scheduled for publication in Foreign Relations, Vol. XXVIII, Southern Africa, 1969–1976.
2. Secretary of State Kissinger, Under Secretary Robinson, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Joseph A. Greenwald, and Assistant Secretary Schaufele discussed a coordinated approach to African aid.