13. Telegram From Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy0
Moscow, May 6,
1961.
Dear Mr. President:
On behalf of the people of the Soviet Union and on my own behalf I send you and all the American people sincere congratulations on the occasion of the successful launching of a rocket, with a man on board, that flew a distance of 300 miles and that, during flight, reached a height of up to 115 miles.
Recent outstanding achievements in man’s conquest of the cosmos open up boundless possibilities for understanding nature, in the name of progress.
Please convey my heartfelt congratulations to the pilot, Shepard.
N.
Khrushchev
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 911.802/5-661. No classification marking. Another copy of this message is in the Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Countries Series,USSR, Khrushchev Correspondence. A slightly different translation is in Department of State, Presidential Correspondence: Lot 66 D 204. The Russian-language text is ibid.↩