Description: Defence Secretary makes the point that there has been deterioration in confidence between the US and their European allies. The basic relationship between the Governments of the US and the USSR is still one of rivalry and the US are trying to better relations by increasing contact and cooperation by multiplying the number of Soviet/US agreements to the detriment of relations with Western Europe. Reported remark by Sonnenfeldt, who was speaking in Kissinger's place, that the US had to negotiate with the Soviet Union on the defence of Europe in part because it had not proved possible to do so among the Western Allies. Report suggests that Washington intends to make Europe the focus of their diplomacy in 1973.