97. Memorandum From David Klein of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)1
McGB—
SUBJECT
- Talk with Ambassador Thompson about Pen Pals
I talked with Tommy about the pen pal series-the importance of the channel and the apparent Soviet sensitivity about the way it is being handled.
Tommy clearly has reservations about the exercise under present Soviet management. He feels it has become too much of an impersonal Soviet Government enterprise. It is focusing on issues better serviced by regular diplomatic communications and without personal Presidential [Page 250] involvement. He also is miffed by the fact that Kosygin breached the rules of conduct for handling the series.
In response to my suggestion that a reply be drafted so that the President, the Secretary and you could see what it would look like-mentioning such subjects as those you raised earlier, the exchange of visits, disarmament, Vietnam-Tommy said (1) the Foster-Fisher disarmament proposals were non-starters and given the present state of affairs in Vietnam made almost no sense; (2) the Secretary had handled Vietnam with Dobrynin yesterday afternoon2 and he, Tommy, wanted to see what that produced before taking the exercise further; and (3) the Soviets seemed to be persisting in wanting to discuss Berlin and the mutual withdrawal of forces from Europe, both non-starters from our side at this time.
After I repeated for the nth time the importance which I was sure you attached to keeping this channel open and working, particularly in the present context, Tommy agreed to put something together, but after he saw the substance of the Secretary’s exchange with Dobrynin.
I will follow through again.3 In the interim I think it might be useful for you to raise this general subject with the Secretary. A go-ahead signal from him will get Tommy moving with less resistance. As far as the subject matter is concerned, part of the input, particularly on disarmament, will have to come from this end of town because there is little sympathy for it on the 7th floor at State.
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Head of State Correspondence, Pen Pal Correspondence, Kosygin. Top Secret; Sensitive.↩
- A memorandum of their conversation is in the National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Conference Files: Lot 67 D 586, CF 86.↩
- On March 16 Klein forwarded to Bundy summaries of the pen pal exchanges with the “Kosygin-Brezhnev regime” and suggested the subject matter for a reply in his 4-page covering memorandum. (Johnson Library, National Security File, Intelligence File, Pen Pal Material) The next day he sent Bundy another 4-page memorandum on the “Pen Pal Exchange” that summarized communications with the Soviets on several issues since January. (Ibid.) In a June 21 memorandum to Bundy, noting that he was “forever looking for means to reestablish the pen pal exchange-which in my view has tremendous psychological as well as political importance in our relations with the Soviets, particularly during times of crisis,” Klein proposed a pen pal message on the President’s forthcoming (June 25) address to the United Nations. (Ibid., Head of State Correspondence, Pen Pal Correspondence, Kosygin)↩