NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR. NSC MIDDLE EAST AND SOUTH ASIAN AFFAIRS STAFF FILES, 1974-77

The Office of Middle East and South Asian Affairs provided the primary staff support to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs on foreign policy and defense issues for thirty countries ranging geographically from Morocco to Saudi Arabia to India. As with the National Security Council's other geographic offices, the Office of Middle East and South Asian Affairs had a wide variety of responsibilities. It coordinated and helped ensure appropriate follow-up on issues in the Middle East, South Asia, and North Africa (which went to the President for decision through the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs); participated in NSSM or other interagency studies; helped provide a coordinated intelligence flow to the President and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; and handled many details relating to Presidential involvement in visits, speeches, meetings and any other event involving the First Family or the White House on matters affecting this area.

Robert Oakley, a career foreign service officer on detail from the Department of State, headed the office from September 1974 through January 1977. As the Senior Staff Member for Middle East and South Asian Affairs, Oakley reported directly to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, attended all senior National Security Council (NSC) staff meetings, represented the NSC at appropriate interagency meetings, and maintained a wide range of contacts with other agency representatives, appropriate White House offices, and other NSC offices. Oakley was also an integral part of Henry Kissinger's Middle East policy team, helping spearhead US efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict in the aftermath of the October 1973 war. In this capacity, he worked closely with the Department of State and traveled as a member of the negotiating team on all trips. In addition, Oakley worked with the White House Counsel's Office and representatives of other agencies on the issue of the Arab economic boycott of companies doing business with Israel, helping formulate recommendations to the President about administration policy.

As Senior Staff Member, Robert Oakley also supervised two staff officers. This was a flexible arrangement in which one officer had primary substantive responsibility for Middle East issues and the other for South Asian issues. Each person assumed the other's tasks during absences or covered the entire range of countries and issues during the Senior Staff Member's absences. From 1974 to mid-1976, Arthur Houghton, on detail from the State Department, had the primary responsibility for Middle East issues, in particular economic and military supply problems and the peace negotiations. Upon completion of his detail, Houghton was replaced by Gary Sick. Sick, on detail from the Department of Defense, mainly focused on arms sales transfers, general military considerations, and the Persian Gulf. Rosemary Niehuss, permanently assigned to the NSC, had primary responsibility for South Asian and Iranian issues, but also had considerable secondary responsibility for Middle East and North African issues. In addition, she handled or provided guidance on almost all administrative aspects of the work of the office.

The convenience files are a valuable source of information on a wide range of foreign policy and defense issues for thirty Middle East, South Asian, and North African countries. Unfortunately, for reasons that are unclear, several of the collection's series are incomplete. The Country File, Visits File, and General Subject File contain only scattered materials prior to 1976, while the Presidential Briefings File does not contain any materials after June 1975. However, the Kissinger Trips File, Peace Negotiations Chronological File, and Chronological File are complete series.

The materials are particularly strong in regard to Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Syria. There is much information on US military and economic assistance, visits by heads of state and high-ranking government officials, Henry Kissinger's Middle East shuttle diplomacy, regional alliances and territorial disputes, US security interests in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, and Soviet interests and activities. The files document such specific topics as the Egyptian-Israeli negotiations for return of the Sinai Peninsula, the Arab economic boycott of companies trading with Israel, the outbreak of civil war in Lebanon, the impact of the Middle East peace process on the prices and availability of oil, Israel's and Pakistan's fledgling nuclear weapons program, the establishment of a US naval base in the Indian Ocean at Diego Garcia, Soviet relations with Egypt and Syria, HAWK missile sales to Jordan, and the struggle between Algeria and Morocco for control of Spanish Sahara.

Related Materials (September 2015)
The most closely related materials are in the Presidential Country Files for Middle East and South Asia and the appropriate NSC Staff Files which sometimes include guidelines for dealing with Middle Eastern and South Asian affairs. Records in the NSC Institutional Files also deal with substantive political, military, and economic issues of Middle Eastern countries. Several categories of the White House Central Files Subject Files, especially the CO � Countries files, also contain related material. Researchers can identify the file locations of additional materials relating to Middle East and South Asian policy from PRESNET search reports, which are available upon request.