328. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in the Soviet Union1
281528. Eyes Only for Ambassador from the Secretary.
Please see Dobrynin informally as soon as you can and try to get some feel from him as to Soviet thinking about a possible meeting now that he has been in town for a few days and may be able or willing to say somewhat more than did Gromyko. One question on our minds is whether Gromyko’s talk with you is supposed to be their answer to my conversation with Dobrynin.2 Gromyko’s comments must have been on the basis of an abbreviated cable reporting by Dobrynin rather than on the basis of any significant discussion among Soviet leaders. I must say that Gromyko’s remarks about the Middle East and Southeast Asia were rather bleak and, as you pointed out, not very encouraging about the possibility of any major advances in either area.3
FYI—You should know that, if such a meeting is held, Nixon would almost certainly not accompany the President but would designate Bob Murphy to represent him in the President’s party. End FYI.
- Source: National Archives and Records Administration RG 59, Central Files 1967–69, POL US–USSR. Secret; Nodis; Cherokee.↩
- In telegram 6728 from Moscow, December 5, Thompson wrote that he did consider Gromyko’s oral statement on November 29 (see Document 326) in answer to Rusk’s talk with Dobrynin on November 25 (see Document 321). (Johnson Library, National Security File, Memos to the President—Walt W. Rostow, Vol. 109)↩
- Thompson commented further in telegram 6728: “I should think it wise to keep public focus of any meeting squarely on missile talks where it now is regardless of attention devoted to other problems. Believe our friends will accept this whereas if it were thought that main purpose was US-Soviet bilateral on other issues this could cause complications with our allies, particularly as I assume we could not give them much advance information.”↩