369. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) to President Kennedy0
The Secretary of State telephoned at 3:30 to say that in his talk with Dobrynin1 the latter reaffirmed, on instructions from Moscow, that his government still seeks a neutral and independent Laos in accordance with the agreement reached at Vienna. The Secretary said that he gave it to Dobryin with both barrels on the questions raised in our minds by the Nam Tha incident. He further indicated to Dobrynin that this episode raised in our minds the question whether the Soviet Union was still in charge of events in Laos and that in the light of this question we had necessarily taken certain precautionary and defensive military measures. But because Dobrynin explicitly reaffirmed the Soviet Government’s stand on Laos, the Secretary made very clear that our own moves do not at present imply that we have given up. Indeed, he reaffirmed our own desire to get a three-Prince government. This is a very hasty summary but the Secretary wanted you to know that on balance he thought it was an encouraging talk.
- Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Countries Series, Laos: General, 5/10/62–5/16/62. No classification marking.↩
- The record of the Rusk-Dobrynin talk is in a memorandum of conversation, May 15. (Department of State, Central Files, 751J.00/5–1562)↩
- Printed from a copy that bears these typed initials.↩