174. Memorandum From Acting Secretary of State Christopher to President Carter1
[Omitted here are items unrelated to East Africa.]
7. President Moi’s Visit. At my lunch for President Moi yesterday, he reiterated the themes he had discussed with you about Nyerere’s misguided socialism and Tanzania’s designs on Uganda, Seychelles, Comoros and Zambia. The Kenyan Attorney General suggested we use our influence with Binaisa to ease out the Tanzanian presence in Uganda.2 Moi also repeated his concern about Soviet arms supply to Zambia and his hope that the West could provide more support to Zambia so Kaunda would not have to turn to the Soviets. He said he relied upon us to restrain Siad Barre.
Moi gave Harold Brown a shopping list (APCs, artillery, air defense missiles, C–130’s, additional F–5 airplanes and navigational aides). Harold told Moi we were aware of Kenya’s economic problems and would therefore want to consult closely on military priorities. He noted that debt forgiveness presents problems for us but said he hoped we could find a way to help. He proposed more lenient terms for FMS credits in FY–1980 and FY–1981 and said he hoped that $20 million ESF we had offered would help with Kenya’s balance of payments problem. Moi said that the morale of Kenya’s armed forces has been raised by the prospect of our joint use of their facilities and that Kenya is proud to be our partner.3
- Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 22, Evening Reports (State) 2/80. Secret. Carter initialed and wrote “Cy” in the upper right corner.↩
- Carter wrote “We should do this” in the left margin.↩
- See footnote 7, Document 173.↩