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  4. Document 77

77. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, May 18, 1965.

SUBJECT

  • Palanquin Aide-Mémoire

PARTICIPANTS

  • Ambassador Anatoliy F. Dobrynin, USSR
  • Llewellyn E. Thompson, Ambassador-at-Large, Department of State

I handed Dobrynin our Aide-Mémoire of today’s date2 in reply to the Soviet Aide-Mémoire on the Palanquin experiment.3 He queried the meaning of the sentence to the effect that we would be in a better position to believe that they had not intended a violation of the Test Ban if they had been more forthcoming with information on their experiment.

[Page 203]

I reminded him that we had asked for further information and that this had been refused. He asked if we really believed they intended to violate the Treaty. I said I did not think so, but that it would have been much easier to say so directly if we had been given more information. He shrugged and said that this was a matter for their atomic people to deal with.

  1. Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OSD Files: Lot 70 A 1266, 388.3 (2 Feb. 1965), May-June 1965. Confidential; Limdis. Drafted and approved by Thompson, May 18.↩
  2. Document 76.↩
  3. Document 75.↩