271. Memorandum of Conversation1 Moscow, May 24, 1972, 7:50 ...

1064 Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, Volume XIV
Chairman Kosygin: Another thing, there is not a single ship on the
way to Vietnam now carrying military equipment—not one shell—only
flour and foodstuffs, no armaments whatever.
[The meeting ended at 11:00 p.m. and the party went upstairs to
dinner, where the conversation was devoted entirely to non-substantive
matters.] 12
12 Haldeman’s diary records that the President had him in the next morning (May
25) to review the previous night’s meeting and said that “he had been very tough on
Vietnam and that this was the first time K had seen him operate like this.” Later Nixon
told Kissinger to give Haldeman a report on the session. Kissinger said that “the P had
been very tough and did a magnificent job, and that he was very, very cold after they
blasted us on Vietnam, and he just sat there and let them run out their strength, and had
done it superbly.” (The Haldeman Diaries, p. 464)
272. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National
Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon 1
SUBJECT
Moscow, May 24, 1972.
Talking Points on the Middle East for Your Meeting This Afternoon 2
The Soviet Position: Recent Developments
A month ago in Moscow the Soviets raised the Mideast issue repeatedly
and stressed the danger of an explosion—but they did not
show signs of flexibility on the concrete terms of a settlement. Encouraging
signs of realism on their part seem to slip away whenever
we press them for concreteness.
1 Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 487, President’s
Trip Files, The President’s Conversations in Salzburg, Moscow, Tehran, and Warsaw,
May 1972, Part 1. Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only. A stamped notation
on the memorandum indicates the President saw it.
2 Discussion of the Middle East was postponed until May 26. In his memoirs
Kissinger wrote that when Brezhnev first invited Nixon to dinner with the top Soviet
leadership on May 24 to take up “outstanding issues,” they were told that Brezhnev
meant to discuss the Middle East. That afternoon, however, Dobrynin told him that the
most likely subject on the General Secretary’s mind was Vietnam. (White House Years, pp.
1222–1223) For Nixon and Brezhnev’s discussion of the Middle East, see Document 284.