95. Memorandum of Conversation, Washington, November 6, 1974, 11:45 a.m.1 2
PARTICIPANTS:
- President Gerald R. Ford
- Ambassador John Sherman Cooper, Ambassador to German Democratic Republic
- Lt. General Brent Scowcroft, Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
MEMORANDUM
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION
DATE AND TIME: Wednesday, November 6, 1974 11:45 a.m.
PLACE: The Oval Office
The White House
President: What was the final tally on Marlow [Cook]?
Cooper: About 73,000. I really thought he had a chance. He carried Lexington. Our district didn’t do well.
In relationship to your campaign — you hurt no one. And I’m not just buttering you up. In fact you helped. Before you came, the Republicans had given up.
President: My reaction is the same. Bob Dole said my stop in Wichita made the difference. Also in Utah. My own district is what hurts. We lost by 1-2%.
Cooper: I knew when I was going to win and when I was going to lose. Marlow knew what he was up against. Kentucky is 2-to-1 regular Democrat. There is no feeling against you. It wasn’t a referendum on your program. On taxes, you may have to raise them a little.
President: We apparently lost four in the Senate and 39-to-40 in the House. When you think what we were carrying — Watergate, inflation, etcetera.
Cooper: They all like you. It is not discouraging.
President: We can now allege they have co-equal responsibility. They can be held accountable. [Page 2] When do you leave?
Cooper: Two weeks from Friday. I am your representative. They are tough people and it will be a tough time. There isn’t much knowledge about the Communist Party and how it works and what its objectives are. The Soviets are there with 300,000 troops and maybe they don’t like them. Then there is Berlin.
President: Be firm. We didn’t send you to capitulate. We won’t take anything from them. We are sending a good man and we won’t take any guff.
After the war, I negotiated with the Soviet Union over displaced persons. We had orders to send them back to the Soviet Union. I was only a Lieutenant but I protested to Patton and they changed the order.
Cooper: I will stand firm, don’t worry. I know I have your and Kissinger’s confidence. I will look at the staff, and if I don’t like them, I will make some changes.
President: Who is your Deputy?
Cooper: Grove. I don’t know him, but he wanted to open the Embassy before I got there.
- Source: Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Memoranda of Conversations, Box 7, Ford, Amb. Cooper (GDR). Confidential. This meeting took place in the Oval Office.↩
- President Ford met with Ambassador Cooper following his confirmation by the Senate as Ambassador to the German Democratic Republic.↩