159. Memorandum From the Deputy Director of Plans and Policy of the United States Information Agency (Sorensen) to the Presidentʼs Special Counsel (Sorensen)0
SUBJECT
- The Joint Kennedy-Khrushchev Television Appearance
The President will have the same advantages in his TV appearance with Khrushchev that he had in the Nixon debates: obvious sincerity, obvious ability, obvious youth and vigor. This appearance, then, should not be a statement or speech which incidentally is filmed but one which is skillfully produced to take full advantage of the man and the medium so as to enhance the persuasiveness of his arguments.
To this end the President should be informal, perhaps sitting in his rocking-chair in his office. He should use two or three words of Russian, and address his Soviet audience directly as “you”. He should limit his presentation to several main themes, easily repeatable by word-of-mouth (theUSSR has only a limited number of TV sets). He should be positive, not negative, and avoid making “debaterʼs points” which might put him one-up on Khrushchev but would not convince many in his audience.
To establish rapport he should make some cultural or literary reference to Russian authors or artists, and refer to his own visit to the USSR in the late 1930s. He might informally introduce his wife at the close of his remarks.
Questions and comments directed to Russian-speaking guides at our recent exhibits in the USSR provide a useful insight into the Soviet publicʼs chief concerns and misconceptions about the U.S. and its policies. Based on this experience and the advice of our demonologists, we recommend that the President emphasize:
- 1.
-
The earnest desire of the U.S. for peace. We want equitable and peaceful solutions to world problems. We have never started a war and never will. We support an effective U.N. as the best hope for just and peaceful solutions to international quarrels. The President might relate Soviet suffering during World War II (“You understand what war is”) to his own war experience and injury and his brotherʼs death.
Our desire for equitable and peaceful solutions is not so much a point in itself but a thread to be woven throughout his remarks.
- 2.
- The U.S. position on:
- (a)
- Berlin. A restatement along the lines of the Presidentʼs very effective presentation to Adzhubei would be most desirable.
- (b)
- Disarmament and nuclear testing. We invented the atom bomb and had a monopoly on it until 1949. During the time we were the only atomic power we sought to share our knowledge with the Soviet Union and others but theUSSR in 1946 rejected the Baruch Plan for turning over all our military and peaceful atomic resources to international authority. President Eisenhowerʼs 1955 “Open Skies” proposal, which would have permitted the USSR and the U.S. to keep an eye on each otherʼs military preparations, was rejected by the Soviet Union. At our initiative, talks were undertaken in Geneva in 1958 among the U.S., the USSR and Britain in an effort to agree on a treaty banning nuclear testing. We also proposed that all testing be suspended during these talks. The Soviet Union broke that moratorium by resuming atomic testing in the atmosphere in September of last year. Then the U.S. (and Britain) proposed to Khrushchev that their governments agree at once to halt atmospheric tests but the USSR turned down the offer. Later in September President Kennedy challenged the Soviet Union to a “peace race” instead of an arms race and presented to the UN a plan for “general and complete disarmament.” On October 27 the UN General Assembly, by a vote of 87 to 11, appealed to the USSR not to test a 50-megaton bomb. The Soviet Union voted against this resolution and three days later exploded the bomb.
- 3.
- The welfare base of our free enterprise (or mixed economy) system. (The average Soviet citizen thinks the American worker lives and toils in an economic jungle, unprotected from unemployment and the hazards of old age, ill health and accident. He also believes our economy is subject to regular booms and busts with the latter more frequent and longer-lasting than the former.) The American government, national and local, has a deep and abiding concern for the welfare and happiness of all its citizens. This concern dates back to the revolutionary beginnings of our republic when the new Constitution declared that providing “for the general welfare” of our citizens is a major purpose and essential function of the American Government. This was emphatically reaffirmed by President Roosevelt in the 1930s. (FYI: FDR is a favorable symbol of the U.S. in the USSR.)
Last year, the average pay of an American industrial worker was more than $420 or 378 new rubles per month. To give you a better idea of what this means, the worker was paying $8.50 (or 7 rubles, 65 kopecks) for a pair of shoes. His suit cost him $40 (or 36 rubles). He paid about $2,000 (or 1,800 rubles) for his six-passenger automobile.
Should this worker lose his job, he would receive about $150 (or 135 rubles) per month for up to nine months. However, few workers are unemployed [Page 374] for such a long time. The average period of unemployment in 1961 was less than four months.
When the worker retires because of old age or disability, he and his family are supported by monthly payments from a government fund to which he and his employer have contributed. This is often supplemented by further payments from his employer.
As the President told the Congress February 6,1 education “is the mainspring of our economic and social progress.” The Russians say (phonetically: “oochaynya svee-et ah niyeh oochaynya tmah” (“Education is light; ignorance is darkness”). So it is that in the U.S., every child has the right to 12 years of free education. One-fourth of all American young people between 18 and 21 are enrolled in institutions of higher learning. (Avoid use of the word “college” which is misunderstood in the USSR.)
In closing, the President might express his desire for further communication between the two nations such as that afforded by this joint TV appearance.
One obvious reminder, Ted: the Presidentʼs audience will be the whole world, including our allies and the uncommitted nations, not just the USSR and the U.S.