211. Telegram From the Embassy in the Soviet Union to the Department of State1
4566. 1. At lunch today I asked Dobrynin what had brought him back to Moscow. He replied that government wanted to talk about Soviet-American relations but went on to say that question foremost on everyone’s mind was Vietnam. He said many members of government were convinced that we were not ready for negotiations but were bent on achieving a military victory and that our peace moves were merely a screen to cover each escalation. He went over past history and cited as the most recent example our having proposed a withdrawal ten miles on each side of the DMZ and then almost immediately had bombed targets around Haiphong. This particularly concerned Soviets as their ships were frequently in the port.
2. Dobrynin said that government was still considering the ABM question but said that this like all other questions of relations with the US was affected by the Vietnam problem.
3. He said Soviets would ratify Consular Convention in due course but they would probably ratify Treaty on Outer Space first.
- Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1967–69, POL 17 USSR-US. Secret; Limdis.↩