27. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon1

SUBJECT

  • Protest on Soviet Jamming of Voice of America

You recently asked for a stiffer US response to the persistent—and, in the past two months, increasing—Soviet jamming of the Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts beamed to the USSR.2

Since my previous report to you on this subject, I have noted that Ambassador Beam—on State Department instruction—also made the point that Soviet jamming of VOA was inconsistent with the expressed desire of both countries for a freer flow of information in his initial conversation in Moscow with Premier Kosygin on April 22 this year.3

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 306, Agency Files, Voice of America. Confidential; Nodis. Sent for information. A stamped notation on the memorandum indicates that the President saw it. An unknown hand wrote “ret 7/16” below the stamped notation. Sonnenfeldt sent a copy of the memorandum to Kissinger under a July 10 memorandum requesting that Kissinger sign the memorandum to the President. (Ibid.)
  2. See Document 26 and footnote 6 thereto.
  3. See Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, vol. XII, Soviet Union, January 1969–October 1970, Documents 39 and 40 for documentation on Beam’s meeting with Kosygin.