Office of the Historian

160. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, October 10, 1966.

SUBJECT

  • Plowshare

PARTICIPANTS

  • U.S.
    • The Secretary
    • William C. Foster—ACDA
    • Ambassador Llewellyn Thompson
    • Governor Harriman
    • John M. Leddy—EUR
    • Malcolm Toon—SOV
  • USSR
    • Foreign Minister Gromyko
    • Soviet Ambassador Anatoliy Dobrynin
    • Alexander I. Zinchuk, Minister-Counselor, Soviet Embassy
    • Counselor of Embassy Vorontsov
    • Ivan I. Ippolitov, Aide to Gromyko

After the dinner meeting Mr. Gromyko raised with the Secretary the idea of exchanging views on peaceful uses explosions. Mr. Gromyko referred to the Secretary’s discussion on this matter with Dobrynin some time ago2 and asked where we should go from here. The Secretary said we would be prepared to set up a small group of experts to focus on the problem and Ambassador Thompson could discuss the matter further with Ambassador Dobrynin. Mr. Gromyko said that the Soviets were indeed interested in going forward with such an exchange of views and the arrangement suggested by the Secretary would be entirely acceptable.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, AE 6. Confidential; Exdis. Drafted by Malcolm Toon (EUR/SOV) on October 18 and cleared in S/S and S on October 19. Regarding the location and time of this conversation, see footnote 1, Document 158.↩
  2. Document 123.↩