23 July 2004 releases

A file of personal correspondence of Sir Denis Greenhill (Permanent Under-Secretary, FCO).

Kissinger on the President's men

Includes a letter from John Freeman (British Ambassador in Washington) quoting Henry Kissinger's comments on the men surrounding President Nixon: "I have never met such a gang of self-seeking bastards in my life …I used to find the Kennedy group unattractively narcissistic… but these people are real heels."

British Council Director-General

John Henniker, Director-General of the British Council, faces internal opposition to his appointment.

Guy Millard, Minister in the British Embassy in Washington, writes to London on behalf of John Freeman (the recently departed British Ambassador). He reports Henry Kissinger (President Nixon´s National Security Adviser) as saying that the Russians "were looking to a negotiated end in the not very distant future." Washington and Hanoi were near agreement twice but missed it by "mutual mistrust." The US expected to gain "14%-20% more population control" in the next 9 months. North Vietnam "in the long run would probably respond only to developments on the ground." Pressures on them would be much greater by next spring.

Russian espionage

File of Sir Alec Douglas-Home includes a letter to Mr Gromyko (Russian Foreign Minister) about Russian espionage in UK. USSR has 500 officials in UK - more than in the USA - many of whom are agents. He finds it hard to interpret Gromyko's comments as "other than a suggestion that HMG should allow these intelligence agents of yours to conduct their activities… unhampered lest Anglo-Soviet relations should suffer."

European Monetary Bloc

The same file has a note from Lord Cromer (now British Ambassador in Washington) proposing a European Monetary Bloc (an idea not liked by the PM or the Chancellor).

The file - about w hat Commonwealth heads of government should be told about Suez - consists of drafts of individual, and different, letters to the Commonwealth premiers (and attempts to answer likely Parliamentary questions).

Minutes from FCO Ministers to the Secretary of State (Douglas-Home) about the importance of a Concorde route to South Africa, the need to have a refuelling stop in Lagos, Nigeria, and the importance that funding an extension of the runway there should not pretend to be anything other than UK interest.

During a visit to the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan at Macmillan's Sussex home, Birch Grove, the French President, Charles de Gaulle, gives Pierson Dixon (HM Ambassador in Paris) his thoughts on Europe. "To weld Frank and Teuton into a new Europe which will be able to recover its one-time supremacy in world affairs…in a world dominated by two barbarous powers, the Russians and the Americans." "No doubt we shall eventually be able to live with the Russians, as we have learnt to live with the Americans."

Decision to set up a Ministerial Sub-committee, originally to monitor communist activities. Herbert Morrison (Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons) points out that there might be criticism if it were directed only towards communists so its scope should be widened to cover all subversives.

A request from the Security Service (MI5) to have access to the Cabinet agenda leads to question of who is responsible for the Service. MI5 is responsible to the Prime Minister but it is clear that the original intention was to make the Minister of Defence responsible. (At that time the PM was also the Minister of Defence.) Now that a new MoD is set up should it be responsible? Sir Edward Bridges (Treasury Permanent Under-Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service) says "MoD have a good deal on their plate" and to "wait until they have settled down a bit." It would be better for both MI5 and MI6 (the Secret Service) to work to the PM. (MI5 did not get access to the Cabinet agenda).