Office of the Historian

207. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, March 10, 1967.

SUBJECT

  • Wortham Case

PARTICIPANTS

  • Soviet Ambassador Anatoliy F. Dobrynin
  • Deputy Under Secretary Foy D. Kohler

During his call on me today, I referred to the efforts that everyone in the Executive Branch of the United States Government from the President on down has been making in connection with the ratification of [Page 466] the Consular Convention.2 I said I was sure he had noted this and he indicated assent. I pointed out that the debates were still continuing in the Senate and that it was very important that nothing happen which would turn the tide against ratification.

In this connection I said we were concerned about the handling of the Wortham case which we understood was to be considered tomorrow by the Court of Appeals.3 Obviously, the most favorable thing that could happen would be that the Court of Appeals should release Wortham. I thought this would ensure passage of the Consular Treaty. However, as a very minimum, it was important that no action be taken which would cause a negative reaction. He asked whether postponement would be a good thing. I replied that release of Wortham would be the best thing, but that I would repeat as a minimum nothing adverse should be done tomorrow.

Ambassador Dobrynin said he understood my point and that he would promptly telegraph Moscow on this matter.4

  1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1967–69, PS 7–1 US–USSR/Wortham, Ray Buell. Confidential. Drafted by Kohler and approved in G on March 10.↩
  2. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee reported the convention out favorably by a 15–4 vote on February 28. The Senate voted 66 to 28 for ratification on March 16, and the President ratified the convention on March 31.↩
  3. On December 21, 1966, a Leningrad court had sentence Buel R. Wortham to 3 years in a labor camp on charges of theft of a statue and violation of Soviet currency regulations.↩
  4. On March 11 the Soviet Court of Appeals reversed Wortham’s labor camp sentence and fine him 5,000 rubles. In a March 11 memorandum Kohler called it an “unprecedented reversal,” which he also tied to his conversation with Dobrynin on March 10 concerning executive clemency for Igor Ivanov, a Soviet espionage agent on bail pending appeal of his 1964 conviction and sentence of 20 years imprisonment. Kohler considered the reversal one of a series of actions the Soviets counted on to give them “a certain amount of credit” toward eventual clemency for Ivanov. (Department of State, Kohler Files: Lot 71 D 460, Dobrynin-Kohler Memoranda of Conversation)↩