Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–5, Part 1, Documents on Sub-Saharan Africa, 1969–1972

295. Memorandum From Marshall Wright of the National Security Council Staff to the Presidentʼs Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger)¹ ²

Washington, July 31, 1970

SUBJECT:

• The Midnight Sun

The Evans Novak column in the Washington Post this morning has full details on this matter. The period of no publicity is therefore over and, given the nature of the case, we can expect considerable press interest.

The Evans Novak column attributes the seizure of the Midnight Sun and keys the whole story to “steadily rising Russian influence” in Somalia and East Africa.

Except for the fact that life is unfair, we would have won the race to get the vessel released before its seizure became a matter of public knowledge. The Somali Ambassador in Washington has been under instructions for 5 days to deliver a note from General Siad to President Nixon informing us that the vessel and crew will be released. The note still cannot be delivered however, because the Somalis cannot decode the message, even after several retransmissions. (They have new coding machines—doubtless provided by the Russians—and just cannot make them work properly.)

I am sorely tempted to nip this story in the bud announcing what we know of the Somali decision. However, on balance, I do not think that prudent because we have indications, both from the Somali Embassy and from Italian sources, that the garbled part of the message may, repeat may, involve some kind of condition which we might find troublesome.

We cannot, therefore, announce at this point that the matter has been resolved. Hopefully, we will be able to do so quite soon.

In the meantime, I think the White House Press Office should leave this one strictly alone and simply refer all questions to the State Department. We will get our innings when we are able to announce the letter to President Nixon and the decision to release the vessel and crew.

1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 743, Country Files, Africa, Somalia Republic, Vol. I. Confidential.
2. Wright reported that the The Midnight Sun had become the subject of press interest due to an Evans and Novak column in The Washington Post that attributed the seizure to steadily rising Soviet influence in Somalia and East Africa.