Office of the Historian

23. Memorandum of Conversation1 2

Washington, May 8, 1969, 12:10 p.m.

SUBJECT:

  • NPT and SALT

PARTICIPANTS:

  • Soviet Ambassador Anatoly F. Dobrynin
  • The Secretary
  • Mr. Joseph Sisco, Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs
  • Mr. Malcolm Toon, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for European Affairs

The Secretary asked Ambassador Dobrynin to stop in for a brief chat after his meeting with Mr. Sisco. The Secretary told the Ambassador that before his departure on the Far Fast trip he wished to discuss with him his current thinking with regard to NPT and SALT.

NPT

The Secretary asked when the Soviets would be prepared to respond to our proposal for joint action in ratification of the Treaty. Dobrynin said that he had been informed by Moscow this morning that Ambassador Beam had been given some information by Deputy Foreign Minister Kuznetsov with regard to Soviet ratification plans. Ambassador Dobrynin’s understanding on the basis of the cable he received was that the Soviets now intended to begin the ratification process. Mr. Toon added that according to Ambassador Beam’s reporting telegram, Kuznetsov had also said that his Government had not yet decided when the final act of ratification should take place.

The Secretary said that the President was interested in holding joint ceremonies both here and in Moscow which might be covered on world-wide television through a Telstar hook-up. It was not the Secretary’s intention to press the Soviets to fix a date now for such joint ceremonies, but he did feel if we could reach agreement in principle, leaving the date open, it would be helpful to us in our planning. It was the President’s view that joint action by our [Page 2] two countries would give momentum to the NPT and might encourage reluctant non-nuclear countries to sign. Ambassador Dobrynin said be would report the Secretary’s remarks to Moscow.

[Omitted here is discussion on SALT]

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 725, Country Files, Europe, USSR-Memcon’s, Dobrynin/Secretary, Mar 69. Secret; Nodis. Drafted on May 8 by Toon.↩
  2. Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin and Secretary of State Rogers discussed the U.S. proposal for joint action in the ratification of the NPT.↩