Office of the Historian

179. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, October 10, 1966.

SUBJECT

  • Soviet Greetings

PARTICIPANTS

  • U.S.
    • The President
    • The Secretary
    • Llewellyn E. Thompson
    • Mr. Walt Rostow
  • U.S.S.R.
    • Mr. Gromyko
    • Ambassador Dobrynin
    • Mr. Sukodrev

At the conclusion of the talk between the President and Mr. Gromyko, the latter said privately to the President that he had brought greetings from President Podgorny, as well as Mr. Brezhnev and Mr. Kosygin and their best wishes for the President personally, as well as for the United States.

The President replied that he was very appreciative of this message and hoped that Mr. Gromyko would take his greetings to the Soviet leaders. He said he would like to repeat the hope he had expressed when he first took office that it would be possible for Soviet leaders to visit this country or for him to visit the Soviet Union.

At this point the leadership of the Congress entered the room and were presented to Mr. Gromyko.

  1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1964–66, POL US–USSR. Secret; Nodis. Drafted and initialed by Thompson and approved in the White House on October 13.↩