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

191. Memorandum of Conversation¹

Washington, January 18, 1967.

SUBJECT

• Soviet-American Relations

PARTICIPANTS

• The Secretary
• Deputy Under Secretary Foy D. Kohler
• Soviet Ambassador ANATOLIY DOBRYNIN

During the Secretary’s meeting with Ambassador Dobrynin tonight, the discussion turned to bilateral relations. After some general discussion in which Dobrynin took a rather pessimistic view, the Secretary informed him that the East-West trade legislation probably would not be coming up for consideration until May or June. However, the Secretary said he felt reasonably optimistic with regard to the Consular Convention which would be considered much sooner. After some discussion of FBI Director J.E. Hoover’s statement,² Ambassador Dobrynin suggested that the Administration had not really made it clear that the Consular Convention did not provide for the opening of consulates. That was an entirely separate question which had not even been officially discussed.

During this phase of the conversation the Secretary referred to the new Soviet magazine, Sputnik, and the desirability of mutual exchanges. Ambassador Dobrynin spoke glowingly of the new Soviet magazine, but was otherwise noncommittal. There was also some inconclusive discussion on the project for the establishment of some form of East-West institute being undertaken by McGeorge Bundy. When Ambassador Dobrynin said the project seemed very vague to him, the Secretary pointed out that this was intentionally so; that Mr. Bundy’s efforts were exploratory in nature; and that he did not have any specific project to propose, but was rather setting out to ascertain the possibilities of cooperation.³

Reverting to the question of the proposed East-West trade legislation, Ambassador Dobrynin said that he had studied this carefully. As he understood it, this was a bill for the Eastern European countries and not for the Soviet Union. It seemed to him that the proposed bill almost said that the U.S. would not deal with the Soviet Union. The Secretary replied that the same provisions would apply to the Soviet Union as to the other Eastern European countries. A trade agreement would have to be concluded; in the case of the Soviet Union it was true that this would involve a lend-lease settlement. He asked Dobrynin’s views on this, and the Ambassador indicated that they would expect any such settlement to be on the basis of the most favorable settlement we had made with other World War II allies, referring specifically to the United Kingdom.⁴

1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, S/S Files: Lot 76 D 435. Confidential; Exdis. Drafted by Kohler and approved in S on February 23.
2. See Document 194 and footnote 4 thereto.
3. Documentation on the establishment of an East-West institute is at the Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, East-West Institute. A memorandum of Bundy’s February 25 conversation with Dobrynin on an East-West institute is at the National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1967–69, POL 1 US–USSR, attached to Kohler’s March 25 letter to Bundy.
4. For more information on East-West trade legislation, see Foreign Relations, 1964–1968, vol. IX, especially Documents 181 and 192. Congress passed no legislation on East-West trade in either 1967 or 1968 but did hold hearings on the issue during 1968.