Office of the Historian

381. Memorandum of Conversation0

Washington, November 26, 1963, 11:35 a.m.

PARTICIPANTS

  • US
    • The President
    • Under Secretary Harriman
    • Ambassador Thompson
    • Mr. Tyler—EUR
    • Mr. Bundy—The White House
    • Mr. Akalovsky—ACDA/IR
  • USSR
    • Mr. Mikoyan
    • Ambassador Dobrynin
    • Mr. Smirnovski, Chief of the American Section, Foreign Ministry
    • Mr. Sukhodrev

SUBJECT

  • Communications between the President and Mr. Khrushchev

In response to the Presidentʼs remarks about the peaceful intentions of the United States, Mr. Mikoyan said that instead of setting forth the Soviet views on these matters he wished to hand the President a message for him from Mr. Khrushchev. He then asked Mr. Sukhodrev to read the text of the message in English.1

[Page 837]

The President said he appreciated the message very much and noted that we would certainly continue the policy of exchange of information and free communication. He observed that when he had been a little boy he had been told that no manʼs judgment on any question was better than his information on that particular question. Of course, information could come only from communication. He hoped that Mr. Mikoyan would convey to Mr. Khrushchev that he was looking forward to communicating freely with him. This could be done by means of letters, provided, of course, that they remained private. In this connection, he assumed that Mr. Khrushchevʼs and his own letters already exchanged were not for publication.

Mr. Mikoyan assured the President that if it was agreed that the exchange be private there would be no leaks anywhere as far as the Soviet Union was concerned. The system at the top of the Soviet Government was such as to preclude the possibility of any leaks. He also wished to point out that as far as the Soviet Ambassador in Washington was concerned, the President could be absolutely sure that he would not allow any leaks. Consequently, if the President wished to communicate with Mr. Khrushchev through the Ambassador, he could be assured that no one in Washington, except the Ambassador himself, would be familiar with the communication. As to Moscow, only Mr. Khrushchev himself and his closest associates would have the knowledge of the message.

The President said that he wished to give the same assurances on our part.

Mr. Mikoyan commented that he realized even without this the exchanges would be private.

  1. Source: Department of State, Presidential Correspondence: Lot 77 D 163. Secret. Drafted by Akalovsky. For a memorandum of the first part of the conversation, see Document 380. The meeting was held at the White House.↩
  2. See Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, vol. VI, pp. 311–313.↩