137. Editorial Note
On November 3, 1962, John Scali of the American Broadcasting Corporation met with Alexander S. Fomin, Counselor of the Soviet Embassy in Washington and reputedly head of Soviet intelligence in Washington. Fomin made five points to Scali. First, the United States must be patient with Soviet efforts to moderate Castro; second, the Soviet Union required reciprocal concessions; third, as Castro was adamantly opposed to inspection, the United States and Soviet Union should resolve the issue themselves, by inspection of Soviet ships at sea in international waters; fourth, the Soviet Union could not withdraw its surface-to-air missiles from Cuba for fear of leaving Castro defenseless; and fifth, the Soviet Union planned to leave some technicians in Cuba to train Cubans in the operation of defensive weapons.
Although original records of certain other Scali-Fomin conversations have been found, none for November 3 has been discovered. Pierre Salinger paraphrases and quotes from Scali’s report of this meeting in With Kennedy, pages 279-280. Salinger notes that Scali’s reports were regularly transmitted to members of the Executive Committee and that President Kennedy jokingly suggested that Scali should attend the sessions.