48. Editorial Note
On May 11 the President’s Press Secretary Pierre Salinger arrived in Moscow for a 5-day visit. During two extensive conversations on May 12 Chairman Khrushchev told Salinger that the Soviet Union could not recognize the right of the Western powers to keep their troops in Berlin and rejected the U.S. idea of an access authority. Reports on the conversations were transmitted in telegrams 2935 and 2965 from Moscow, May 13 and 15. (Department of State, Central Files, 611.61/5–1362 and 101/5–1562) For Salinger’s account of the visit, including extracts from the conversations on Berlin, see With Kennedy, pages 222–237. Further documentation on the visit is in volume V.