Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Eastern Europe; Finland; Greece; Turkey, Volume X, Part 2

79. Memorandum of Conversation⁰

Washington, August 10, 1959.

SUBJECT

• Discussion with Polish Ambassador Regarding Vice President’s Visit to Poland

PARTICIPANTS

• The Polish Ambassador, Romuald Spasowski
• Mr. Foy D. Kohler, Acting Assistant Secretary of State
• EE—Albert W. Sherer, Jr.

The Polish Ambassador called at his request to obtain Mr. Kohler’s reaction to the Vice President’s visit to Warsaw. The Ambassador opened the conversation by saying that he had received encouraging messages from Warsaw about the visit and although, of course, there had been no time to complete any final analysis the preliminary opinions were that the visit had been very useful.

Mr. Kohler agreed that in our view the visit had been very successful and complimented the Ambassador upon the very efficient arrangements which had been made by the Foreign Ministry, particularly the Protocol Section. Mr. Kohler then reviewed for the Ambassador the various subjects that had been discussed during the Vice President’s conversation with Gomulka.

On the subject of nationalization claims the Ambassador asked if he thought it had been useful to discuss this subject at this level. Mr. Kohler replied that he was a little disappointed that the subject had been discussed at such a high level as he was afraid that it might freeze the positions which had so far been adopted. Mr. Kohler expressed the thought that the question had been approached on the Polish side from too bureaucratic a point of view and that some of the Polish technicians appeared to be penny wise and pound foolish.

At the conclusion of Mr. Kohler’s presentation Ambassador Spasowski asked if it would be possible for the Department to assist the Polish Embassy in inviting the Vice President to attend a dinner at the Embassy. Mr. Kohler replied that we would be glad to approach the Vice President on this subject and would let the Ambassador know the Vice President’s decision.¹

The Ambassador then asked if the recently proposed disarmament group would include Poland.² Mr. Kohler replied that if the surprise attack formula³ were followed, then, of course, Poland would be included in the new group, but that this subject is still under discussion and it is not possible to give any definite answers at this time. Mr. Kohler added that if the new group were organized it would be established outside the UN but would report to that organization.

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 033.1100—NI/8–1059. Limited Official Use. Drafted and initialed by Sherer and initialed by Kohler.
1. No documentation on whether Nixon was able to attend a dinner at the Polish Embassy has been found in Department of State files.
2. Reference is presumably to the Declaration on Disarmament issued by the Foreign Ministers of France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union at the conclusion of the Geneva Conference on August 5. Subsequent consultations led to the announcement on September 7 by these four governments of their decision to set up a Ten-Power Disarmament Committee consisting of representatives of these four powers and Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Poland, and Romania. For texts of the two statements, see Department of State Bulletin, August 24, 1959, p. 269, and September 28, 1959, pp. 438–439.
3. Reference is presumably to the Western statement at the Geneva Surprise Attack Conference issued on December 17, 1958, at the close of the Conference of Allied and Communist experts on prevention of surprise attack. For text of this statement, see Documents on Disarmament, 1945–1959, vol. II, pp. 1306–1316.