oval office discussion between presidents nixon and tolbert

8/13/2019 Oval Office Discussion Between Presidents Nixon and Tolbert

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MEMOR NDUM

THE WHITE HOlJSEWI\SHlr.;CTON

SEQIUsCf!NODIS/XGDS

MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATIONPARTICIPANTS: Pres ident Nixon

Pres ident William R. Tolbert , J r . , of Liber iaMajor General Brent Scowcroft, Deputy

Assis tant to the President forNational Security Affairs

DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, June 5, 197311 :05 a. m . - 12:00 Noon

PLACE: The Oval Office

The P re sident: You dOl} t need mili tary equipment like that.he pres s ente red . : J

Tolbert : We have to be prepared, but we don' t want to tie up fundsl ike that.The President : Do you sti l l have your house since you moved intothe Pres ident s house?Tolbert: Yes, I sti l l have it . I still go there.The P re sident: I remember i t well. I never ate so well.Tolbert : Many thanks for sending Mrs. Nixon to my inauguration. , / f-Cf:'D

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-&lj;;CRET NODIS/XGDS - 3 ,.{;I 'In Afr ica there is a revolutionary spir i t in m.any countr ies .

They are not patient to change things by evolution. I say revolutionis wrong; the answer is evolution, but with speed.

If we ca r ryon vigorous agr icul tural program.s, we can developan improved standard of living, and a m.oney econom.y. Par t s of thecountry are isolated. In one area I visited, they didn' t even knowthe nat ional anthem. when i t was played.

We are friends indeed. Fr iends need friends. I give youwhat have - - al l the confidence in you that I can give. You havedone so TI mch. I am. at t racted to you we are m.uch the sam.e. Wea re pioneers , bridgebui lders , som.etimes m.isunderstood.The President : I t is par t of the price .Tolbert: We a re prepared to die for a cause. We have our in te r -African problem.s. I t ry to keep friendly relat ions with m.y neighborsso I don' t have to spend all our m.oney on defense. I have exce1lentrelat ions with m.y neighbors. They look up to m.e for guidelines.Econom.ic st rength strengthens one ' s wi1l. f i b e ~ i a develops, m.yvoice on your behalf will be st ronger .

A t a recent OA U m.eeting, they wanted m.e to be Chairm.an,but need to concentrate on Liberia . I can lose m.yself in onecause - - and now i t m.ust be Liber ia , not Africa.

That is the situation. Our problem. is a ser ious economicsi tuat ion. Som.etim.es when we speak out, there are hazards. Toprotect our coasta l area we need boats; our o lder ones are out ofcorn.rn.ission. We need i t for economic reasons.

On May 19 we star ted som.e developm.ent in every provinceof the country, on the anniversa ry of our Rally for Developm.ent.

brought you a copy of m.y OAU speech. We should go al lout on social-economic development, regiona1ly, bilatera1ly, m.ultilateral ly . This concept was accepted. I am. trying to set an exam.ple,developing close cooperation with our neighbors.

Now a word on the Middle East . I spoke to Pres ident Sadat,who conveyed to you his regards. He wants to be friends. The MiddleEast is the corne r of the whole world. t is a com.plicated problem..

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We have Securi ty Council Resolution 242 and the OAUresolution approving i t . The resolut ions a re okay, but i t takespeople of courage to hnplem.ent the resolut ions.

I am. friendly with both sides, so I can talk to both. Som.epeople want to cut off relat ions with Israel - - but I say we m.ust beable to talk.

The occupied areas we m.ust figure out how to guaranteeIsrae l ' s secur i ty before giving up those areas .

I talked to Mrs. Meir . One way to m.ove would be to give upsom.e of the unim.portant areas . There m.ust be recognition of thet e rr i tory and secur i ty of Israel . Mrs. Meir and President Sadatboth want m.e to visi t . You, with your courage, perhaps and youcan give pointers.The Pre We are trying to help. You a re suggest ing what is aninterim. settlem.ent. If Is rae l would agree, Sadat says he would workfor an interim. settlem.ent only i f a final settlem.ent is also understood.Israe l ' s elections a re a tough period. We are talking to Is rae l publiclyand privately. If Sadat would give a l i t t le . Israel is concerned withi ts t e rr i tory and securi ty; Egypt is concerned with i ts sovereignty,and m.ust have back every inch of i ts te r r i tory . I s rae l says "Weneed som.e for our defense.

You m.ay tel l President Sadat you passed his m.essage. Thereis nothing I would like m.ore than to get the problem. off dead center .If we could get an interim. s e t t l e m e n t ~ with som.e general idea of anoveral l settlem.ent. If Egypt would m.ove a bit, maybe we couldget Israel to m.ove. Egypt says an interim. settlem.ent would becom.eperm.anent.

I will take to hear t your concerns. I hope you will work at it.War would be a tragedy. Israel would win.now, but not in five

or ten years . Tim.e is on the Arabs ' side.f Egypt s tar ts a war, i t would be beaten unless the Soviet Union

intervened

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f both sides could agree to some general principles, andthen move on concrete steps, then perhaps we could get moving.Egypt res i s t s that.Tolbert: We can t ry. President Sadat said he is interested in havingrelat ions with your country. He seemed to be n earnest . That isone reason he kicked out the Russians.

Sekon Toure asked m e to give his regards . He is anxious forc loser economic relations with us. The resources of Guinea areenormous. They a re intact . The people have gone through a struggleand have benefitted themselves. They have strong character . Ipersonal ly would l ike American influence to dominate there . Tourel ives under fe.ars. He fears a Portuguese invasion in reaction to someof the African posit ions he takes.The Pre sident: I will keep this in mind.Tolbert: You canlt lose. f there is greater leaning toward the Eastbecause of the economic 'benefi ts, the East will develop othe rpolit ical t ies .

I see the situation as a friend. All I can give is moralen couragemen t.The President : One thing is important . Nobody fears Liberia.You can be a friend to al l and a moderating influence on radical ism.There is a s torm of radical ism running through the a rea t ruerevolut ion. f you can influence your. fellow presidents for progressnot extremism. The future of Africa will not be made by extremistsbut by those l ike you who are progressive.

You need self-help, development, and welcoming privateenterprise.

Uganda that s too bad. He is acting l ike a madman.Tolbert: I had to talk to hiln, and i t helped.The President : You can help in these things. Is Burundi hopeless?

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Tolbert: I t s not hopeless. We a re looking into i t Even the situationbetween Ethiopia and Somalia. Somalia wasn It even going to come tothe OAU. I got him to come and we set up a border crossing to useour good offices to sett le it. This is A!ricans settling African problems.The President : You can p laya constructive role.

With regard to bi laterals , we will do what we can.We are in a difficult situation, but we will do what we can.

we can' t , our friends understand.Tolbert: Of course.The President : You are interested in the world. We are meetingwith China and the Soviet Union. We opened up a dialogue with China;we will be meeting with the Soviet Union again on SALT, etc. Butour talks will not be a t the expense of our friends.

Our concentration this year on the Soviet Union and Europewill not be at the expense of Africa. Secre tary Rogers went toAfrica. Latin America i s not l ike Africa. You are the only Africancountry with a special relationship with us. Others a re t ied toEurope. But we are great ly interested in Africa and that will becomeapparent. This is an important area of the world. We are workingon the hot spots in the world in order to hold down the danger , and theU. S. must d.eal in an imaginative way with the superpowerS.

Your t r ip will mean that we have not lessened our interest inthe people of Africa. I t has resources; the governments are newexcept yours. There are problems - - Rhodesia and Zambia, SouthAfrica i t s important there to rule out the use of force. Sending aUN force to South Africa i sn t real is t ic and won't work. We don' tneed more war. We a re just ending a long war; we know that peace(short of surrender) is bet ter than war. We will defend our interests ,but we a re interested in peace, not war. We donlt want to discr iminateagainst anyone. Tell your African friends we don It have designs onanyone.

Our meet ings with the People ' s Republic of China and theSoviet Union don It mean that I agree with Comm unism, but the worldis so smal l that we must learn to live together.

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Tolbert: That is what I say. Toure leans to the left buthe is afriend.ThePresident : t wasgood to see you.LThemeeting ended.:J

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oval office discussion between presidents nixon and tolbert

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