Office of the Historian

219. Letter From Secretary of State Rusk to Secretary of Agriculture Freeman0

Washington, August 2, 1962.

Dear Orville: In your letter of July 101 you called my attention to a conversation in which the Soviet Ambassador raised the possibility of an exchange of agricultural delegations on the ministerial level. You may recall my advice in our later telephone conversation that you should be quite friendly and receptive to such an idea.

You will be interested to know that the Agricultural and Cultural Counselors of the Soviet Embassy called at the Department of State on Friday afternoon, July 27,2 and formally proposed an exchange in the field of agricultural information under which the Soviet Minister of Agriculture, K.C. Pysin, would visit the United States in September for four weeks. The Soviet officials further proposed that the delegation total six [Page 472] persons; that the tour include visits to agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and the observation of the extension service and county agent system; and that the group observe general farming, including grain, vegetables and fruit, and visit various agricultural areas, particularly the North Central states.

I hope that you will consider whether you can receive this Soviet delegation and prepare a suitable itinerary for it in the United States. It would also be of interest to know whether you would be prepared to make a similar trip to the Soviet Union at some future time. Members of our staffs have, of course, cooperated closely in the handling of various agricultural exchanges with the Soviet Union. Mr. Frank G. Siscoe, who is in charge of our exchanges with the Soviet Union, will be glad to cooperate with any member of your staff you may designate to handle detailed arrangements.3

With best regards,

Sincerely yours,

Dean4
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 611.61/7-1062. No classification marking. Drafted by Siscoe on July 31 and cleared by Ramsey.↩
  2. Not printed. (Ibid.) In another letter to Rusk, July 30, Freeman added that he had talked with Dobrynin again about an agricultural exchange involving the Soviet Minister of Agriculture. Freeman told the Ambassador that the Department of Agriculture would be happy to cooperate in the exchange, subject to overall political determinations. (Ibid., 511.613/7-3062)↩
  3. A memorandum of their conversation with Siscoe is ibid., 511.613/7-2762.↩
  4. On August 3 Freeman replied that the Department of Agriculture would arrange the appropriate scheduling and attempt to dramatize the successes of U.S. agriculture and the Soviet Ministerʼs exposure to it. (Ibid., 033.6111/8-362) In subsequent discussions U.S. and Soviet officials agreed on a 4-week visit by Pysin, beginning September 10. Documentation on the visit is ibid., Central Files 033.6111 and 511.613. For text of the press release, August 25, announcing the visit, see Department of State Bulletin, September 10, 1962, p. 380.↩
  5. Printed from a copy that indicates Rusk signed the original.↩