795.00/5–2551
Memorandum by George F. Kennan Concerning Events From May 18 to May 25, 19511
On Friday, May 18, having been called to Washington by P, I talked with O in the presence of P and two other persons.2 O asked me whether I would be willing to undertake the project in question, and I told him that I would. It was agreed that arrangements would have to be made by E in New York, and that I should see him when I was up there the following week.
On Monday, May 21, I talked at length with E in New York. It [Page 461] was agreed that he would seek an opportunity to communicate again with X and to suggest to X that it might be both useful and interesting for him to talk with me. He was to give X an opportunity to think it over and was to offer to arrange the meeting.
On Tuesday, May 22, I phoned O and told him that I had started the ball rolling. I suggested to him that he and a tiny circle of his associates sit down immediately and arrive at some clarification, to be communicated to me, of the areas which might profitably be explored and those areas which it would be better not to have explored at all. I explained that I would be speaking solely as an individual and without commitment of anyone else, but that it was nevertheless obviously desirable that I know what things it would be wise to talk about and what things had better not be discussed. He said that they were planning to do this. I said that I thought that someone, probably F,3 ought to be kept in a state of readiness to come to see me in Princeton at any time, to bring me this information. I said that I would want him also to be able to brief me on everything that I should know involving things happening elsewhere, such as the Paris discussions or the Japanese peace treaty discussions, which might have a bearing on the subject at hand. I was sure that X, if he consented to talk to me, would be thoroughly briefed on these matters, and I thought I should be too.
On Tuesday, May 22, I had lunch with E, who said he had made an attempt to reach X by phone but had received the usual run-around and had failed to get through to him. I asked him to continue his efforts, and if he failed to reach him by phone to send him a personal note by messenger.
On Wednesday morning, May 23, P phoned me in Princeton and said that he thought it would be best if I were to come to Washington. I said I would try to arrange this (it meant cancelling engagements), and called him back in the evening to say that I would come the following day.
On Thursday morning I phoned E and told him I was going to Washington. He said he had had another phone communication Tuesday afternoon with X’s office, that this time they had been interested enough to inquire his office and home numbers and had indicated they might call back, but they had not done so. He had not yet sent any note. There was to be a meeting on Friday which he thought X might attend and where he would probably see him. I told him to hold the note, but to transmit the message orally, if an occasion presented itself, on Friday, unless he had heard from me to the contrary in the meantime.4
- At this time, Mr. Kennan, on leave of absence from the Department of State, was at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. This document and others relating to his talks with Mr. Malik on May 31 and June 5 were sent by Mr. Kennan to Under Secretary of State Eugene V. Rostow on February 20, 1968. Copies have been indexed into the Department of State files under the decimal number 795.00/5–2551.↩
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The following manuscript note by Mr. Kennan, dated February 20, 1968, appeared in the source text:
“Insofar as I can recall, the code of letters used above was as follows:
“P=‘Doc’ Matthews, then either Deputy Under Secretary or Director of EUR.
“O=Secretary Acheson.
“E=Someone attached to our UN delegation in N.Y., probably Tom Cory.
“X=Soviet Amb. to the U.N., Jacob Malik, or possibly Tsarapkin.”
↩ - “F” is not identified in the source text.↩
- There is no further record of developments on Friday, May 25, but see the letter from Mr. Kennan to Mr. Tsarapkin, May 26, infra.↩