No Objection To Declassification in Full 2013 11 15 NLC-12-28-9-1-8 MEMORANDUM THE WHITE HOCSE OUTSIDE THE SYSTEM WASHINGTOI ' SECRET SENSITIVE March 8 1977 MEMORANDUM FOR ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI FROM WILLIAM E ODOM SUBJECT Chat with Lt General Sitton Director of the Joint Staff As I told you I paid a call on Lt General Ray Sitton who directs the Joint Staff for General George Brown He made the following points which will be of interest to you In the Uganda affair he was delighted that I kept an informal line open to the NMCC It allowed them to be more responsive to the Secretary of Defense He is sensitive to the National Cormnand Authority and wants to make sure that we do not send instructions directly Warnings of 11 instructions 11 that may be coming from the Secretary of Defense however are most desired in a crisis where some time can be gained thereby I explained that you under stand this very clearly and will not try to direct the NMCC He generally corroborated my assessment of the vulnerability of the NGA in a short warning situation NEACP is good for command and control but not really where the President wants to be He gave a very positive assessment of the OSD-JCS relationship at present -- He is delighted that President Carter has sho Vl l interest in the SIOP and related command matters Although Kissinger took great interest in these matters he noted Nixon avoided them and Ford was hardly enthusiastic He remarked at length on 11 Entebbe raidn capabilities Our capability for this kind of affair seems to have come up rather SECRET SENSITIVE No Objection Declassification in Full 2013 11 15 NLC-12-28-9-1 No Objection To Declassification in Full 2013 11 15 N C-12- _ _9 1--_ SECRET SENSITIVE 2 often in the past We have the as sets for operations of that scale in the Army Ranger Battalions the 82nd Airborne Divi sion and Marine landing forces with the Sixth and Seventh Fleets Three problems have arisen when Kissinger and others wanted to use them a We cannot match the Israelis in controlling the press' anticipation of such an action if we alert more forces than two or three companies b Decision-makers tend to forget that the U S cannot send Rangers into the British or French airports as they thought of doing in the Croatian sky-jack affair without British and French permission Britain and France are not Uganda in this regard They feel able to perform their own rescue operations c Small powers tend to gain public support for feats of rescue daring Superpowers are almost sure to receive bad press for demonstrating the same prowess and competence SECRET SENSITIVE WO nm 3 8 77 No Objection To Declassification in Full 2013 11 15 NLC-12-28-9-1-8