198. Editorial Note
In a meeting with Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin in Washington on May 30, 1962, Secretary of State Rusk argued that the two sides were unlikely to agree soon on the principles of a lasting agreement on Berlin. To avoid confrontation, they should agree to disagree and focus on learning to live with that fact as they continued to work for a permanent settlement. For text of the portion of the memorandum of conversation dealing with Germany and Berlin, see Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, volume XV, pages 161–172.
At the same meeting the Secretary told Dobrynin that “organically, there was no connection between Berlin and disarmament negotiations, but in the broadest political sense it was inevitable that these matters should influence each other. A crisis over Berlin would obviously have the gravest implications for disarmament.” Dobrynin responded that he “could agree that there was no direct connection between disarmament and the Berlin problem, but that they were related.” For text of this portion of the memorandum of conversation, see ibid., volume VII, pages 459–460.
For Dobryninʼs brief account of his meetings with Rusk on Berlin and Germany during this period, see his memoir, In Confidence, page 63.