348. Telegram From Secretary of State Rusk to the Department of State0
Secto 54. Eyes only for the President; no other distribution. Herewith my personal impressions of talk with Khrushchev and atmosphere my visit. There is no question but that Soviets went all out to handle my visit in a friendly and relaxed fashion. This was true not only of highest officials but of all levels including such a sourpuss as Zorin. Senators and other members our party given same treatment.
At the Black Sea Khrushchev was very much the affable grandfather. Although he said the usual things about Berlin there was no bluster or threat. One could not detect any sign of impending actions against the West but this could of course change overnight without notice. My chief impression of the talk with Khrushchev, with which Thompson and Kohler agree, was that other matters, possibly not fully known to us, are much more on his mind than are issues with the West. Both he and Gromyko referred to continuing the talks when Gromyko comes to the United Nations in September and expressed the hope that by that time an additional point or two of agreement could be found.
In a private talk with Gromyko I pressed him hard on Cuba and even on that subject he did not bristle. He said, “I want to tell you most seriously, and I am speaking officially, that the Soviet Union now has in Cuba only a limited number of military personnel engaged in training of Cubans. There is not in Cuba a Soviet military unit of any type, not even a platoon. Please inform the President of this.” When I pressed him further on Castroʼs activities in Latin America he said that Castro was merely engaging in public debate and that it is words not action. I told him we were concerned about Castroʼs activities; he feigned surprise and said he would be interested if I were to inform him of any such activities we have in mind. Neither he nor Khrushchev raised overflights or any other menaces which preceded earlier discussion of my visit to Moscow.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, ORG 7 S. Top Secret; Operational Immediate. According to another copy, this telegram was drafted by Rusk. (Ibid., Conference Files: Lot 66 D 110, CF 2290)↩