McClellan: So how much more are you going to ask for?
Hays: I have never seen the Vietnam aid debate more acrimonious. This is an election year. Fertilizer is a sore point here -- you can't get it here. To talk two months before elections about more aid and more fertilizer is dreaming. Try to hold the line and come back after the elections. I think these are the facts.
President: I understand, but we are trying to lay things out frankly.
Hays: We could have done it earlier, but to reopen it now is really impossible.
Cederberg: I think we will not get a bill before the elections and will be working on a CR. The problem is the CR is low and doesn't include the Middle East.
Kissinger: That's right. The bill has been cut so badly that in many ways we would be better off with a CR, except it would cripple us in the Middle East.
Hebert: We defeated attempts in the House to cut to $900 million. The Senate was lower but we gave $1 billion. It was Appropriations which did the $700 million. We will give you a supplemental; it is on the floor that the trouble will come.
President: The Middle East is tough right now. We are negotiating with Rabin now. They are asking for substantial funds. Look at it in global terms: How can we be having a disaster in Southease Asia while we are trying to negotiate in the Middle East?
Hays: I filibustered a cut-off of aid to Turkey. You can get Israeli aid, but Greece and Turkey is another problem. I am afraid the Committee may put the Turk prohibition in. You better work on that one.
President: A cut-off to Greece and Turkey would have dire consequences. Negotiations are moving in the direction which we think will be satisfactory.
Sparkman: My committee reported out a bill which had inadequacies. To be frank, though, I think we will have a fight on the floor trying to sustain what is in it.
Kissinger: In addition to the funds, we are concerned about the restrictions. In Greece and Turkey, the only way the situation can be worked out is byCONFIDENTIAL
