Office of the Historian

12. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, September 18, 1967, 5:30 p.m.

SUBJECT

  • Technological Gap

PARTICIPANTS

  • Italy
  • His Excellency Giuseppe Saragat, President of the Italian Republic
  • His Excellency Amintore Fanfani, Minister for Foreign Affairs
  • United States
  • The President
  • The Secretary
  • Mr. Walt W. Rostow, Special Assistant to the President
  • Mr. Neil Seidenman, Interpreter

The President said that Foreign Minister Fanfani’s proposal made in NATO to narrow the technological gap between the US and Western Europe had aroused considerable interest. On this point we are attempting to co-operate in every possible way, both through NATO and the OECD. Dr. Hornig, the President’s Scientific Adviser, is presently engaged in a thoroughgoing study of the matter. We must still arrive at a definition of the problem which will help us discover the ways in which we can co-operate further. We are very much in debt to the Foreign Minister for his leadership in this field.

  1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Central Files, 1967–69,SCI 1–1 EURW–US. Secret. The source text is Part IV of VI. Drafted by Neil Seidenman (LS), approved in S on September 2 and by the White House (Edward Fried) on October 5. The meeting was held at the White House.↩