291. Memorandum From the Ambassador to the Soviet Union (Kohler) to Secretary of State Rusk0
SUBJECT
- Conversation with Soviet Ambassador
I had luncheon on February 8 and a two-and-a-half hour talk alone with Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin. Following are the highlights.
Embassy Housing. I assured Ambassador Dobrynin that the State Department would do everything possible to help him in connection with his plans to acquire new housing in Washington. At the same time I mentioned to him my own plans to get new housing for our people and for our offices in Moscow.1
Nuclear Non-proliferation. We had a long discussion on this subject along the lines of the Secretaryʼs conversation with him on February 7.2 We agreed that our interest in this subject was a common one and I argued strongly that our own plans for a multilateral nuclear force were the best way to forestall the growth of pressures in Germany for an independent nuclear capability or a possible Franco-German deal on this subject. I expressed my skepticism about the threat in his démarche to the Secretary that the Soviet Union would share its nuclear weapons with its [Page 626] own friends. He did not directly reply but did say that they did not want either of us to do any sharing.
Cuba. Dobrynin said that he realized the Cuban question was poisoning the atmosphere of our relationship but that frankly he was at a loss as what to advise his Government.3 He sometimes had the feeling that even if they abandoned Cuba entirely and even helped our overthrow of Castro, some people in the United States would charge that it was too little and too late. I told him I could not discuss this in detail. However, I pointed out to him the Presidentʼs problem in this respect and the efforts the President was making to restrain the emotions connected with this question. I gave him the personal opinion that it would be very helpful if there could be well publicized photographs in the papers every week or so of Soviet ships leaving Cuba with Soviet military personnel obviously visible on the decks.
Nuclear Tests. Dobrynin apparently felt optimistic about our reaching agreement on a nuclear test ban agreement. At the same time he made it clear that the Soviets would contemplate the signing of such an agreement as an appropriate occasion for a meeting between the President and Chairman Khrushchev. I argued that this would be premature since the ratification process would still lie ahead in the United States and the charter members would be committed to solicit other adherents. I expressed the opinion that the ratification process would be complicated here since under our system the Senate could charge that the President by dramatizing the signature was taking Senate ratification for granted and abrogating their function. I therefore thought it would be much better that any meeting should follow the accomplishment of ratification and hopefully could take place at a time when other problems could then be dealt with successfully by the Heads of Government.
- Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Countries Series, USSR, Dobrynin Talks. Secret. Drafted by Kohler. Copies were sent to Bundy and Tyler. Kohler was in Washington for consultations.↩
- A memorandum of Kohlerʼs conversation with various Department of State officials on this question, also on February 8, is in Department of State, Central Files, POL 17 USSR-US.↩
- See Document 288.↩
- In a meeting with Dobrynin on February 9, Rusk twice repeated the comment that Kohler had made to Dobrynin the previous day, that Cuba was “poisoning” U.S.-USSR relations. Rusk indicated that the United States had “no desire or intention to invade Cuba” but that a “wholly unqualified commitment” depended “on the attitude of the Cuban Government.” Rusk also emphasized that the continued presence of Soviet troops in Cuba “contributes to the heightened tensions in our relationship.” For text of the memorandum of conversation, see Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, vol. XI, pp. 696–698.↩