Office of the Historian

263. Message From the Ambassador to Germany (Rush) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger)1

Bonn, June 29, 1971.

In the meeting with Bahr and Falin yesterday, lasting almost 8 hours, I mentioned in low key the incident outlined in my last message.2 Bahr had told me that at Brandt’s “summer fest” Friday night he had had an opportunity to mention it to Falin, who had reacted angrily over it’s having occurred. Yesterday, Falin said that earlier this month he had read a message from Abrasimov to Moscow stating that, at my dinner with Abrasimov on May 31 I had told Abrasimov that Dean was the only one in our Embassy who knew of the special channels.3 I, of course, said this was completely untrue, that neither Dean nor anyone else knew anything about it, and I had not only never mentioned the subject to Abrasimov but that it would have been impossible to do so since throughout Abrasimov’s stay my Berlin political advisor, Akalovsky, had been with [Page 766] me as interpreter. Falin said he did not doubt that what I said was true, that Kvitsinskiy would not have made the statement to Dean or introduced the preamble without instructions from Abrasimov, and that this incident plus the earlier one4 were in Falin’s opinion designed by Abrasimov to sabotage your special channel and our talks. Gromyko has called Abrasimov, Kvitsinskiy, and Falin to Moscow for a meeting Thursday on5 this subject among others, and I’d certainly like to be there too!

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 59, Country Files, Europe, Ambassador Rush, Berlin, Vol. 1. Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only. A copy was sent to Haig. The message was sent through the special Navy channel in Frankfurt. No time of transmission appears on the message; a handwritten note indicates that it was received in Washington at 2218Z. Attached to the message but not printed is the text of a partial draft agreement, consisting of formulations for parts I and II and Annex I.↩
  2. Document 261.↩
  3. See Document 250 and footnote 4 thereto.↩
  4. See Document 207.↩
  5. July 1.↩