UNCLASSIFIED RELEASED IN FULL telcon Sec Kissinger Ted Koppel 7 9 76 12 30 p· m Koppel I apologize I give you credit for your decisi9n and found out the President is having a news conference K Toe President is having a news conference and I didn't want to be overshadowed Koppel Okay I am sorry K I hope it is ruining your weekend Koppel It makes my Saturday You are going to be the lead of my show tomorrow night K If I am th lead of your show the portion ci the news conference will be stale Koppel I am going to come and have brought in a ye ng correspaident - his name ls Scali -- who· wants to come to you Have you heard of him K John Scali Koppel Yes K Was it a bad idea to have it tomorrow I figured I couldn't have one for a few weeks Koppel It was a marvelous idea Saturday is a slow day We have so many tough questions to ask you K Like what Koppel Why we don't have cameras at the briefing All kinds of material the American public is dying to know Why don't we have cameras K Because you would rattle my guy beyond description Koppel We rattle him anyway Why don't you try television people K We have tried a number of them Koppel Mes Osmer would be good or arbara Walters UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE REVIEW AUTHORITY ROBERT H MILLER DATE CASE ID 09 MAY 2005 200102979 UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED • I i t -2K When Barbara joins your network and you get cut to a m_inute Koppel They are not cutting me to a minute I am pulling out to become an author This place is not going to be interesting enough K How do you·know Carter isn't going to keep me Did you r_ead Safire Koppel I saw it You didn't say that about the Kurqs K Look off the record r started the Kurdish operation The Pike Committee got this a big issue They accused me of starting the Kurdish situation and betraying them Koppel That was my understanding By God he is going to write that on your tombstone K I don't think even the Pike Committee said so wait to see that Koppel The irony to me ls our correspondent covering Carter when he made his foreign pollcy speech he said he really goes off after the Kissinger pollcy I said I don't understand You are saying what is the Kissinger policy The pollcy is exactly the same K That is right so I can't change my policy because Carter has accepted it Koppel My long-range prediction is you will be back iri 8 years You are going to have a marvelous 3 months and somebody will be snipping at you and afterwards you will be back in the government K You will be back in the government too You wlll have a terrible 6 months and if you survive them you will be a close friend Koppel I am having a great time writing this book K Am I a fictional character Koppel Yes The character resembles you -- not physically -- you will be terribly pleased K Is it friendlier than the Ehrlichman book Koppel Yes UNCLASSIFIED ··-·-------'----------------------------- - UNCLASSIFIED -3 - K I don't think Koh has made an impression on anybody Koppel You will_ even like the name K What is it Koppel Vanderberg · K Okay Koppel But of course Ford is going to win and I may still be here 8 years from now Kpppel If he wins you are going to need the mpney If he wins I owe you $5 If he loses you are going to be so rich you can afford to pay me $5 K I don't know whether he is going to win or get the nomination Koppel It is true K I think Carter is beatable Koppel He ls not beatable by the genuises you have in the White House K When you have peace and prosperity and a guy who makes you uneasy as Carter does it is easy to beat Koppel They did not vote on the issues They vote on the aura I makes you and me uneasy but I don't think it makes the American public uneasy K It will make them highly uneasy once they have done their deed Oice they have made their point they are sick of whatever they are sick of and they are stuck with something Koppel The campaign issue is bring out the guy with the German accent and bring out the guy with the Polish accent Brezinski will last 6 months before he is peeled llftle by little He lacks your sense of humor and relations with the press K Besides he will shift too quickly Koppel I can see him over at NSC Can't you K Yes Koppel I think that would be the kind of job he would like to have UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED K It w uld be the wrong job to give him incidentally Koppel Do you think so Why K You need somebody who's inwardly detached Even· Haldeman said I gave all the options to Nixon and this is sori of a balance situation You don't need an intelligent Rostow What you need is somebody who can balance the President Koppel He is going to need a lot of balancing One day I would like t talk to you about how and why Carter was picked for the trilateral commission K Do you know Koppel No You are the one with the Rockefeller other family has its family coming · and I feel the K I did ' t think he would be a potential president t Koppel To think Jimmy Carter without any powerful support has become candidate for President · a - K He may have support Koppel I get the impression there were some powerful people who I dam' t think this was a spontaneous thing K That could be true That I genuinely can't judge Koppel You a re going to be out of town K No I will be here You will be at the convention Koppel Yes Where are you going 1n early August K I am not going to the Middle East I know ·Marvin Kalb says I am going to the Middle East Koppel ·I was hop ing K I would like to but it doesn't make any sense It will raise unbelievable aspects Koppel When are you going to Iran UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED - 5 - K About the 3rd or4th I may go to Afghanistan and Pakistan also Koppel On that same trip K Yes Koppel How about the Asia trip K I may cancel that and Portugal I may go to on the way over Koppel Ckay That would be lovely Before I peel off K Are you peeling off Koppel Yes I want to devote myself to writing I am not interested in covering this building once you are gone It holds no great fascination for me I am sure you have said the same thing After you it is goln_g to be a dull place Ted's wife will be starting law school the end of August and will go into semi retirement to wrlte and go back next summer K Then you must take the swing Koppel Oh I will Absolutely K Good Ted UNCLASSIFIED