Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XIV, Soviet Union

142. Memorandum From David E. Murphy of the Central Intelligence Agency to Peter Jessup of the National Security Council Staff¹

Washington, November 24, 1965.

SUBJECT

• Concerning the Soviet Response to Publication of The Penkovskiy Papers

1. Soviet reactions to The Penkovskiy Papers have been violent beyond any past precedent, with numerous acts of retaliation threatened. Probably the nub of the Soviet reaction was expressed by Premier Kosygin to Senator Mansfield when he observed that The Penkovskiy Papers seemed designed to cast aspersions on the USSR and on certain Soviet citizens and were detrimental to U.S.-Soviet relations. Mr. Kosygin went on to add that the USSR could also “concoct a similar book” on the leadership of the Democratic Party, but did not wish to take such action.

2. Attached is a list of recent Soviet publications which show that the USSR has already concocted many such books and there is no evidence that the intent to continue publishing more of them has abated in the past year. Also attached are samples of this Soviet treatment taken from some of the publications described in the list.²

David E. Murphy
Chief, SR Division

1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, USSR, Vol. XI. Secret.
2. Not attached.