LEGISLATIVE INTERDEPARTMENTAL GROUP MEETING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: Library of Congress
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): LOC-HAK-301-10-3-2
• Release Decision: RIPLIM
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: January 11, 2017
• Document Release Date: July 14, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: May 5, 1971
• Content Type: MISC

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CONFIDENTIAL
Time and Place: 4:11 - 5:52 p. m. , White Hous Situation Room
LEGISLATIVE INTERDEPARTMENTAL GROUP MEETING.
Date: May 5, 1971
Attendees:
Chairman- Brig. Gen. Alexander M. Haig
State- Mr. David M. Abshire
Mr.. Joseph Wolf
Defense- Brig. Gen. James F. Lawrence
Mr. Rady Johnson
Mr. Stuart French
Justice- , Mr. Robert Wilde
CIA-
White -
House
'Mr. Kenneth E. BeLieu
Mr. Richard K. Cook
Mr. Jonathan C. Rose
Mr. John Lehman
Mr. Keith Guthrie
extension, although.BeLieu considers this questionable. BeLieu counts 37
Rr~}-wc?kar bp1iPVos 1;2 vntfts can he mustered in favor of a one-year;
BeLieu.thinks neither side has the votes for a complete victory. Senator
supporters undependable. Sen. Buckley, for example, sought to back out on
a previous comm tment to vote for the bill.
and will be pending business on May 6. Sen. Mansfield thinks the debate may
last six weeks.
Getting a vote estimate is difficult, since the unpalatable subject matter makes
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BeLieu gave a situation report. The bill has been reported out of committee
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leaning toward the Administration. BeLieu estimates the Administration can
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firmly against the Administration bill, 6-13 doubtful with perhaps 7 of these
win by 2-3 votes or lose by 6-7.
Prairie-fire amendments are a real danger. They might take the following
forms: authorizing a personal appeal for all draftees, total Vietnam
withdrawal by December 31, no draftees in Vietnam., Gates Commission pay
proposal, will vote for two-year extension. Some support may be obtainable
from those who favor the Stennis amendment limiting the draft to 150, 000
although the Administration prefers to avoid such a limit if possible.
Administration strategy, is to hold the line on a two-year extension and
defeat all crippling amendments. Hopefully, we can pick up votes from
those who first want to vote for zero draft, then, following defeat of that
levels, end the draft.
ai asked about developing rationale to support the bill and oppose
amendments. BeLieu described plans to have a support group, staffed by
Defense and Selective Service, close to the floor. Scali suggested emphasizing
how abolishing the,draft would cripple Vietnamization. BeLieu said another
argument for two-year extension was.the desirability of avoiding an election-
year fight on draft. , He cited evidence that we cannot go to an all-volunteer
policy in Vietnam. Haig noted the importance of getting the pending Defense
study on an all-volunteer force in Vietnam.
Haig asked about approaches to interest groups and a target list of Senators
and Congressmen. BeLieu cited contacts already made with veterans groups
and support received from the National Guard. A target list has been
to crank up mail in support of the Administration bill if necessary.
Scali asked about mail. Beau said no complaints on this score had been
.---received yet from Senators and Congressmen. Colson's office is prepared
prepared.
BeLieu praised Abshire's success in winning several votes. Abshire
described State's plans for a series of breakfast briefings on ABM and SALT.
Helms especi y hard on the constitutional authority for the war in North Laos.
asked about distribution of the DOD weekly report on Safeguard. Cook,
BeLieu, Scali, and Crane asked to receive the ?eport.
Stop the War Legislation
Abshire and noted that at recent hearings SFRC members hit Irwin and
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Careful handling is required to avoid alienating Administration friends and
driving SFRC members behind Fulbright.
accept a justification based on protecting the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
the Protocol. Senators like Cooper, who wa~.nts.to be helpful,will only
Abshire stressed the need to develop a ,legal case, based on SEATO and
Hail asked Justice and State to prepare within f wo weeks a position paper
on the constitutional authority question.
BBeLieu stressed the need to have briefing and speech material readily
available to meet requests from the Hill. n suggested following the
practice used with Cooper-Church of designating a department to have
responsibility for providing material on, each issue.
Haig directed that a wiring diagram be prepared showing sources of
information for each issue. Abshire said State would provide one individual
to correlate information material.
essential to insure that the South Vietnamese justify their actions so that
they can be defended here. Abshire promised to look into the matter and
report back-to the LIG.
Haig stressed that the Don Luce case was a touchy issue and that it was,
With regard to Fulbright's request to have Laird testify on "End the Wart,
H. aig ,pointed out that to do so would provide an opportunity for the Committee
to make attacks on other issues. AAbshire and Btu thought it preferable
for Laird to testify on end-the-war rather than war powers, if there were a
choice.
pending enactment of the new legislation. Mahon promised to expedite the
appropriation under the new law and pointed out that RFE would probably
have a two-month grace period under a continuing resolution.
Radio Free Europe Bill
Abshir reported Rep. Mahon's refusal to consider a one-year extension
for the new bill. Liberals were interested in improving international
Abshire was optimistic about putting together a liberal/conservative majority
Abshiree said Sens. Mansfield and Ellender would be approached right away.
subcommittee jurisdictional problems, wanted to see the bill before
committing himself.
Speaker Albert had pledged full cooperation, including a suspension of the
rules, if Rep. Morgan reported the new bill out. Morgan, because of
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communications, and conservatives saw.RFE as a cold-war weapon.
Case had asked to sponsor the Administration bill.
Sen.
Abbshiiire said that after initial Congressional consultations were completed,
be needed to urge the leadership to take prompt action on the bill. Hail
thought the Presidbnt himself would be willing o do this.
a high-level approach, either by Secretary Rogers or the President, 3vould
It was particularly important to strengthen the draft statement prepared for
Secretary Rogers' scheduled testimony on May 14.
War Powers Legislation
Lehman stressed the importance of developing a strong legal argument to
combat bills that would likely be introduced by Sens. davits and Eagleton.
Hai reminded LIG members that they were supposed to submit position
papers at this meeting. He directed. Lehman to review the Rogers statement
and develop a bank of material. BeLieu should provide any material he had
available to Lehman. Abshire suggested Lehman contact Carl Salans and
George Aldrich, who were working on the war powers issue at State.
Lehman mentioned resuscitating the. Zablocki approach, and Cook cautioned
against depending on the House this year to block any war powers legislation
that might pass the Senate.
Abshire noted that the Middle East situation provided one of the best arguments
against the war powers bills. Pro-Israeli groups might provide support,
but State was not the best agency to approach them. Hai suggested that
Abshire coordinate on this with Lehman, who would see what might be done
through Len Garment about enlisting the Israel lobby.
Haig asked State, Defense, and Justice to submit 'this week" recommendations
on how to respond to the renewed request for an audit from Sen. Fulbright and
Comptroller General Staats. Abshire expressed concern that a negative reply
might alienate many Senators on other issues. Bleu suggested a gentle stall.
Hai said he was not persuaded we should change our previous policy of no
audit but that it might not be wise to be hardnosed if this would cost us on other
6. GAO Audit of Berlin Occupation Costs
more. important matters.
GAOIDDR&E Threat Study
reported that Helms, as directed by Kissinger, had informed Staats
that CIA could not cooperate with the study. Johnson thought handling Sen.
McIntyre would not be a major problem.
CONFIDENTIAL
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Fulbright to State
Abp ire said Fulbright wanted a statement of State's policy on what types of
information may be provided to the SFRC. This was triggered by Committee
members' desire to see reporting cables on the Pakistan conflict. Refusal to
give the Committee anything was alienating many otherwise friendly Senators.
(e. g., Sparkman), who did not disagree with our Pakistan policy but who
thought the Committee was entitled to see some of the cables. State thought it
anything more than worry-about the problem at this time.
Wolf clarified that Fulbright merely said that he had received a report on
sortie rates from a staff member. Haig said h,- was not. sure we should do
secret cables came out of the recent SFRC hearings at which Irwin testified.
Sen. Fulbright had referred to cables on sortie rates seen by SFRC staffers.
Moose/Lowenstein-Symington Hearings
Lehman said that the reports that Moose and Lowenstein had had access to
Lehman asked about Sen. Symington's further plans. Wolf said we did not yet
have any indication what Symington was going to do.
Pending Congressional Letters
Fulbright to DOD, April 30
Haig agreed with French's proposal that Defense make a stonewall reply
but asked that all interested parties have a chance to see the proposed Defense
response. French pointed out that this Fulbright letter was a case of GAO's
getting influential Committee chairmen to request data that was beyond the
scope, of GAO's statutory responsibilities. It was,, important therefore, not to
let GAO get away with such. a tactic.
b. McCloskey to DOD
Haig said that McCloskey should be given a polite negative reply.
Church to. DOD
rench explained that Sen. Church wanted to summon our Defense Attache in.
Brazil. Hail agreed that we should follow the established policy that only
the head of an intelligence agency can appear before Congress and that we
should therefore tell Church that he should request Gen. Bennett.
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CONFIDENTIAL'
Pakistan. It was imperative ,that this be kept in mind in screening any
that could be used to imply official USG criticism of the Government of
Haig said that the President would be very disturbed if anything were released
desirable to provide the committee a selection of situation reports, which
would provide only factual information on the situation in East. Pakistan.
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material for release to the Committee..
hman asked whether declassifying the sortie rates might not reduce
material which State proposed to supply was sufficient for their requirements.
Abp thought ?a majority of the Committee would support State's refusal
to release the Dacca cable dissenting from U. S. policy.
White House before releasing it to the Committee. In addition, State would
obtain an advance commitment from Sens. Case and Cooper that the
Abs h a said that State would. select some material and then clear with the
Cozg-ressional pressures on this and other issues.. Abshire thought it
wouldn't help much on Pakistan. However, Abshire, BeLieu, and Scali
saw advantages in releasing the sortie rates. French expressed reservations
and pointed out that the sortie rates would provide Congress a means of costing
out the air operations in Southeast Asia. Haig .said he had no problems with
releasing the sortie rates.
10. DOD Organization for Current Budget Struggle
Haig, Lehman, and. Be Lieu stressed the importance of coordinating all
Administration dealings with the Hill on the Defense Budget. Johnson
promised that all parties concerned would receive a wiring diagram as soon
as all arrangements had been worked out.
Abshire suggested enlisting the support of Jewish American groups, because
of the adverse implications for Israel of a Defense budget cut and because
of their connections with liberals in Congress. Haig pointed out that State
could probably do a better job of handling the doves than Defense.
Haig asked that any replies to letters received from Sena Fulbright be
checked with Lehman.
year. Therefore, a series of White House briefings for rank-and-file
Cook noted that it might be more difficult mustering support in the House this
House members is being arranged. They will be scheduled twice a week.
This will probably not reverse the erosion of support in the House but may
slow it down.
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