237. Memorandum From the Presidentʼs Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon1
SUBJECT
- Titoʼs Views on Soviet Policy
Our Ambassador in Belgrade, Malcolm Toon, met with Tito on April 14 in Brioni.2 He found Tito in good spirits and good health. Rumors about Titoʼs illness were either false or else he has completely recovered.
Tito had the following comments on the Summit and Soviet policies:
- —The Soviets are now taking a more realistic view of the world. Brezhnevʼs speech to the trade unionʼs congress, which had been encouraging to Tito and had differed radically from what a Brezhnev speech would have been a year ago, comments to Tito by Grechko, the Soviet Defense Minister who recently had been in Yugoslvia, and Titoʼs exchanges with the Soviet leadership all evidence this new realism.
- —The prospect of true relations between the US and USSR is reassuring to all Yugoslavs, who remember Soviet brutality in 1968.
- —Grechko had initiated his conversation with Tito by saying that the Soviets had no intention now or in the future to press the Yugoslavs for overflight or base rights, as had been speculated in the press.
Tito also told our Ambassador that he deeply appreciated our offer to brief him on our Moscow Summit preparations and hopes. A prompt post-Summit briefing would also be of great help, since he is planning to visit Moscow himself in June.
Tito also discussed possible visits to Yugoslavia by Secretary Rogers, whom he would be delighted to see next summer, and by Secretary Laird or his successor, whom he would be glad to see but preferably not until next spring.