Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXIX, Eastern Europe; Eastern Mediterranean, 1969–1972

90. Memorandum From Secretary of State Rogers to President Nixon¹

Washington, October 6, 1972.

SUBJECT

• Czechoslovak Foreign Minister Proposes Improvement in Relations

When I met October 5 with Czechoslovak Foreign Minister Bohuslav Chnoupek,² he proposed that we negotiate on the outstanding issues between us and on other problems, with the goal of achieving a substantial improvement in our bilateral relations. He said such an improvement would correspond to the spirit expressed in the U.S.-Soviet Statement of Principles, agreed upon during your May visit to Moscow. I welcomed the Foreign Ministerʼs initiative and said that we were prepared to undertake, through diplomatic channels, negotiations on the problems raised by him.

1. The Foreign Minister referred to our negotiations in 1964, and again in 1968, on Czechoslovak debts to the U.S., including U.S. claims for nationalized property, and on Czechoslovak claims, including the Czechoslovak monetary gold held in the West.³ His Government proposes that we move to solve this whole complex of problems.

2. He suggested that we negotiate a science and technology agreement, either on the governmental level or between the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.

3. He proposed the negotiation of a consular convention, to be followed by a re-opening of the American Consulate at Bratislava and the Czechoslovak Consulate at Chicago.

4. The Foreign Minister referred to the Czechoslovak Chamber of Commerce delegation which has just completed an exploratory visit to the U.S. He hoped that trade between the two countries could be raised closer to the level at which it had been before World War II. Chnoupek said he did not connect the question of Most-Favored-Nation treatment with the proposed negotiations on our financial problems. However, he hoped that success in our negotiations might create a climate in which MFN treatment for Czechoslovakia would eventually be possible.

5. Finally, the Minister extended an invitation to me to visit Prague. If a consular convention and other agreements were then ready to be concluded, they could be signed at that time.

I replied that our interest in Czechoslovakia was not dependent on the state of our relations with other countries, but rested on our desire to respect the independence and sovereignty of Czechoslovakia. I cited the historic friendship between our two peoples, which is strengthened by the close ties between the many Americans of Czech and Slovak origin and their relatives in Czechoslovakia. In that spirit, we found the Ministerʼs presentation agreeable and accepted his suggestion that we proceed to discuss the details through diplomatic channels. We were prepared to begin this process at any time and could settle the modalities in subsequent diplomatic exchanges. Having commented on some points of detail raised by the Minister, I thanked him for his invitation to visit Prague to sign the consular convention and any other agreements we might reach. I said I hoped our meeting of today might mark the beginning of a new stage in U.S.-Czechoslovak relations.

The Czechoslovaks are evidently concerned to move ahead now in an effort to avoid being left behind the trend of improvement in U.S. relations with the Soviet Union, Poland and Hungary. I believe their interest provides us with a good opportunity both to reach settlements advantageous to us of longstanding bilateral problems and to encourage the Czechoslovak Government to begin to emerge from its shell following the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion. We intend to move vigorously to exploit this opening.

William P. Rogers

1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL CZECH–US. Confidential.
2. Chnoupek was in New York for the meeting of the UN General Assembly.
3. See footnote 4, Document 85.