There is almost no way they can knock everything off at once. I find it hard to visualize what strategic superiorty is. It actually would work better on them, because they have less of their forces at sea. This is my concern over the obsession with the Zumwalt approach. It undermines our relationship with the Soviet Union. It will start them into a massive program which we maybe can not sustain. I think movement is propitious now, when you are thought of as a hardliner.
President: I am.
Kissinger: Yes, while we can still threaten them with a breakout if they don't go along.
President: The problem is how to get a public debate to sustain our position. Scoop makes it sound so simplistic. We have got to find a way to get public opinion on our side.
Kissinger: It is easy to get opinion on our side, but not without undermining our credibility with the Soviets.
President: That is right: Whatever you argue against, Scoop undercuts us with the Soviets.
Kissinger: We have to say we are second to none; to ourselves we must recognize that it is probably an unusuable force. Europe has never recovered from World War I. I don't think a political system which inflicts or accepts 20-90 million can survive.
President: Which comes first, the public relations or the negotiation?
Kissinger: Negotiation first. As in SALT I, it will be acclaimed. We had a coalition of conservatives, Jews, and liberals who are determined to damn anything that is associated with Nixon. This coalition will break out, and I think the liberals will now go back to the left and attack you from there. I think Jackson is finished.
President: I agree. The only strength he has left, now that the Jews seem to be leaving him, is Meany.
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