Office of the Historian

57. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to the Ambassador to Moscow (Beam)1

Washington, June 16, 1969.

Dear Jake:

I appreciated your letter of June 2.2 I will of course be interested in anything of substance that might develop in connection with Humphrey’s visit. Your ideas for handling the visit strike me as just right.3

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Your point about seeing the top Foreign Ministry officials from time to time is well taken and it should certainly be possible to supply you with material to take up with them. As you know, and as I mentioned to Boris Klosson4 when he stopped in last week, we would like to see more of our business with the Soviets done at your end. We are giving this some thought and it may be that in connection with SALT something along these lines will develop.

I have read your telegrams with interest and was especially impressed with your recent analyses of the Soviet leadership picture. Your judgment on that subject from time to time will be most helpful here. And, of course, whenever you have comments on how we are handling our relations with your hosts, I will value them.

With warmest regards,

Henry A. Kissinger 5
  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 710, Country Files, Europe, USSR, Vol. III. Personal and Confidential. Drafted by Sonnenfeldt on June 7. A handwritten notation indicates the memorandum was sent to the Department of State for dispatch on June 16.↩
  2. Beam wrote Kissinger to tell him about an upcoming visit to the Soviet Union of former Vice President Hubert Humphrey. (Ibid.)↩
  3. Beam stated his ideas as follows: “I shall try to meet him on arrival and perhaps arrange a small luncheon party with his hosts. I imagine that the Soviets will try to keep him out of our clutches and that it would not be appropriate for me to insist that I accompany him in his talks, since he is a private citizen. I shall try to get hold of him to get some briefing before his departure. He will doubtless stop by the State Department and it will be interesting to see how he plans to handle the ABM question. I hope he will remain fairly well committed on Vietnam.” (Ibid.)↩
  4. On June 3, at 4 p.m., Kissinger met with Klosson, who was on his way to Moscow to become Minister-Counselor. Talking points prepared by Sonnenfeldt for that meeting are ibid., Vol. II.↩
  5. Printed from a copy that indicates Kissinger signed the original.↩