266. Memorandum of Conversations Between the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (Halaby) and the First Deputy Chief of Aeroflot (Schetchikov)0
It was clear from the outset that the primary mission of General Schetchikovʼs trip to Washington was to reiterate the desire of the USSR to proceed with the signing of the bilateral air transport agreement negotiated in 1961 which would provide for establishment of regular air service between New York and Moscow by Aeroflot and PAA. At every opportunity, regardless of the audience, the General made the point that this was a desirable and worthwhile step which would be well received by the whole world, which was watching, as a sign of better relations between our two governments. This view reached its climax during the first discussion between General Schetchikov and Mr. Halaby on November 15 when he stated that he was authorized to sign this agreement on behalf of his government and felt that, unless this could be done, it appeared that the agreement should be scrapped as being too far off in the future to warrant its retention in a pending status. He concluded by requesting Mr. Halaby to obtain for him an official answer on the attitude of the U.S. Government in this regard.
Mr. Halaby pointed out that this was a matter involving other offices of our Government and that he foresaw difficulties in obtaining an official response to his question on such short notice, but that he would make an effort to do so before the time of his departure. The General thanked Mr. Halaby and stated that he would be willing to remain longer if there were prospects of a favorable response.
Mr. Halaby then conferred with the Secretary of State, Mr. Rusk, and with Ambassador Llewellyn Thompson, and received a prompt reply for transmittal to the Russian party. Accordingly, an appointment was arranged for 5:30 on Saturday, November 17, 1962. General Schetchikov arrived with Mr. Yarotski and with Mr. Victor Novash, Third Secretary of the Soviet Embassy, who had not participated in the previous meeting. Mr. Halaby advised General Schetchikov that, as promised, he had carried out the necessary consultations and the U.S. Government position had been determined, which he was authorized to give to General Schetchikov. Mr. Halaby pointed out that normally such inter-governmental matters would be taken up through their Foreign Minister with [Page 578] the Department of State, but since General Schetchikov had been authorized by his Government to sign the agreement, this special effort had been made to provide him an answer. That is: Because of all the unsettled matters between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, it is still considered premature for the United States to sign this agreement. The United States Government would, however, keep this matter under continuous review and advise them through appropriate government channels of any change. General Schetchikov took this answer very calmly, said he regretted this was the answer but, if the U.S. changed its mind, to let them know and they would be ready to sign.
As a sidelight of the above exchanges, General Schetchikov made the statement on several occasions that it appeared to him one of the reasons we were apparently not ready to sign the agreement was the fact that we did not have a suitable aircraft to use on the New York-Moscow route, implying that our jets did not have sufficient range. During the discussions with the ATA, this matter arose again and we laid before General Schetchikov the performance figures of the Boeing 320B, which indicated a still air range of 4,000 NM with the design maximum payload of 53,600 lbs., and a range with full tanks of 7,000 NM with an 18,000 lbs. payload; therefore, he was misinformed on this point. Although this information is readily available from many sources, the General appeared to be somewhat surprised and unwilling to accept that this was an aircraft now in service. He finally concluded by saying, “Well, just as I expected, there is no technical reason for the agreementʼs not being consummated.”
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 611.6194/11-2162. Secret. The source text was attached to a November 21 memorandum of transmittal from Halaby to Rusk. Schetchikov was in Washington to attend the Dulles International Airport dedication ceremonies.↩