Office of the Historian

153. Memorandum From Jessica Tuchman Mathews of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Aaron)1

Washington, July 11, 1978

SUBJECT

  • Human Rights and OPIC

Attached at Tab A is the memorandum I sent earlier explaining the problem. It outlines the arguments and presents an alternative (Option 2) to Christopher’s plans. OPIC agrees with that suggested alternative, as does Henry Owen who feels very strongly on this issue.

Brzezinski’s response to that memorandum was to talk with Christopher who promised to send over a memorandum outlining his posi [Page 497] tion. Christopher’s memorandum is at Tab B. As you will see, it says absolutely nothing. It was a strange response to a call from ZB to send over a memorandum that was more than a month old, and already OBE.

Attendees at this meeting will be: Christopher and Steve Oxman; Poats and Ambassador Smith from OPIC; Henry Owen and myself.2

The key issues to resolve are: should the amendment ever be applied when there is no government involvement in the project?; how should the needy people exemption be applied?; should indirect benefits to the needy be considered, and therefore, should the social behavior of the company involved be considered? The NSC view on each of these is succinctly stated under Option 2 on page 2 of the memorandum at Tab A.

I suggest you begin by asking Christopher to outline his position and then ask OPIC followed by Henry Owen to respond. I will have briefed OPIC.

A copy of the statute itself is at Tab C for your review.

  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Brzezinski Office File, Subject Chron File, Box 94, Human Rights: 1978. Confidential. All tabs are attached; Tab A is printed as Document 150 and Tab B is printed as Document 151.↩
  2. No record of this meeting has been found.↩