1. Memorandum From Secretary of State Vance to President Carter1
SUBJECT
- Improving Relations with Other Nations
On April 5 you asked me to explore ways of improving relations with Angola, Mozambique, Somalia and Iraq. I gave you a preliminary report on April 62 of our present thinking on bettering relations with these countries and promised to follow up with more complete proposals. This memorandum offers some further thinking on steps we are considering or undertaking in pursuit of improved relations with these four nations.
Angola
In my April 6 report to you I reviewed the steps we have taken so far toward improving relations with Angola. I noted that we have delayed further communication on the subject because of the Zaire crisis, in which the Angolans are apparently playing an unhelpful role, and are awaiting the results of Nigerian mediation efforts.3
In the meantime, we have responded to a U.N. appeal for food aid for displaced persons in Angola by offering to provide $12.5 million worth of foodstuffs, which is roughly 25 percent of the U.N. goal. We are also providing modest amounts ($1–2 million) of humanitarian assistance through the UNHCR for Angolan refugees in Zaire. Should [Page 2] our relations improve, we would expand our humanitarian aid as an initial step, and begin to assess Angola’s needs in the area of technical and development assistance.
[Omitted here is material unrelated to Angola.]
- Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Agency File, Box 17, State: 4/77. Secret. Carter initialed the memorandum and wrote in the upper right-hand corner: “cc Cy.”↩
- The report is in an April 6 memorandum from Vance to Carter. (Carter Library, Plains File, Subject File, Box 37, State Department Evening Reports, 4/77)↩
- Carter wrote in the left-hand margin: “Why not a more direct approach?”↩