Transcript
of Telephone Conversation between the President's
Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) and the Minister of the
Soviet Embassy (Vorontsov)/1/
/1/
Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, Box 370,
Telephone Conversations, Chronological File. No classification marking.
K: I just
spoke with the President before going off. I think this is basically clear but
I wanted to be sure there was no ambiguity left. It seems to us that basically
your proposal/2/ is being accepted and therefore even harder to understand a
delay in the joint action.
/2/ An apparent reference to the proposal for a cease-fire put
forward in Brezhnev's December 8 letter to Nixon (Document 253). The Soviet
proposal also called for negotiations between Yahya
Khan's government and East Pakistani leaders concerning a political settlement
in
V: I
understand and I proceeded from that assumption.
K: So some
formulation should begin between East and
V: When I
was reading the paper,/3/ in what form this joint
action should be.
/3/ An apparent reference to Nixon's December 10 letter to
Brezhnev; Document 269.
K:
[omission in the source text] Security Council?
V: That's
clear.
K:
Consider other proposals as well.
V: I will
make that clarification.
K: The
language you have is more precise than one I gave you.
V: I
understand.
K: We will
draft something in Security Council-type language and get it to you this
afternoon.
Source: Document 270, volume XI,