What President Nixon said on the Soviet Jewish issue at the Moscow summit conference and the response he received will not be made public for at least ten years and possibly as long as 20 years, the White House made plain today.
A Presidential spokesman refused even to say specifically whether the Jewish question is part of the formal minutes of the summit conference. He stood pat on the statements by Dr. Henry Kissinger, President Nixon’s assistant on national security affairs, who participated in the summit conference sessions as an advisor to the President. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency raised the question at the White House whether the President’s mention of the issue is included in the summit’s formal record.
Gerald Warren, Deputy Press Secretary to the President who accompanied him on the summit trip said, “I couldn’t give you that answer. I can’t even discuss it.” Warren referred the JTA to Dr. Kissinger’s statement and added, “I won’t say any more.” When pressed regarding the formal record, he said, “I can’t discuss what is or is not in the minutes.”
After the summit talks ended and the Presidential party had arrived in Kiev, Dr. Kissinger said in response to newsmens’ questions that the President had “mentioned the problem.” But when he was asked if the President had brought it up with Soviet Communist Party Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev, Kissinger replied, “I don’t want to go into anything further on that question. The Soviet leaders are aware of our position on the problem.”
The minutes of the summit conference are classified “Top Secret for at least ten years” by both the US and the Soviet governments, the White House informed the JTA. “After that they will stay classified under Sect. 5B-1 of the Executive Order on declassification,” the spokesman said. He added that the classification could be dropped down to “Secret” or “Confidential” after the tenth year. “It will probably come out all at once after 20 years in the State Department’s Foreign Policy Series unless the President decides otherwise after ten years,” the JTA was informed.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
