221. Talking Points for Peter Rodman of the NSC Staff, Washington, undated.1 2
Talking Point for Rodman to Use with Hirasawa
The following is a proposed message which Peter Rodman should read to Kazushige Hirasawa:
I conveyed Prime Minister Miki’s message to Secretary Kissinger who has asked that you transmit the following reply to the Prime Minister: Secretary Kissinger understands Prime Minister Miki’s concern that recent events might be used politically in Japan to poison Japanese-American relations and damage the political process. He also appreciates the Prime Minister’s willingness to share his thoughts about the possibility of taking unprecedented actions to strengthen multi-party democracy in Japan and protect relations with the U.S. After careful consideration, however, Secretary Kissinger has found we are not in a position to respond to the Prime Minister’s questions on the basis of information available to us. In developing any information on these matters, we must rely on procedures we have recently agreed with the Government of Japan which provide for the transmittal of all information via our respective Departments of Justice.
- Source: Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Presidential Country Files for East Asia and the Pacific, Box 7, Country File, Japan [10]. Secret; Nodis. At the end of the talking points, Kissinger wrote, “The Department of State has no access to these records + could not obtain access without upsetting all established procedures.” Written notations by unknown hands at the top of the document indicate that Kissinger approved the talking points on April 10 and Rodman received them through Kissinger’s special assistant Paul E. Barbian. They were presented to Hirasawa at 4 p.m. on the same day.↩
- Rodman was instructed to tell Miki’s confidential adviser that Kissinger could not provide information to Miki about the Lockheed scandal outside the channel established via the Department of Justice.↩