312. Telegram From Prime Minister Macmillan’s Personal Secretary (de Zulueta) to President Kennedy’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)0
T. 295/63. Following from de Zulueta for Bundy. Your CAP 63369. Great men think alike. The President’s message has crossed a letter which the Prime Minister has sent by the bag. I cannot get the Prime Minister this evening and so I am sending you now the text of his letter of which the original will reach you in due course.
Text of letter from Prime Minister to the President:—
Personal
Dear friend,
[Here follow two paragraphs primarily of a social nature.]
I don’t know how you feel about Khrushchev’s speech in Berlin. No doubt your people will analyse it and so will ours. We shall have to agree the vital point which is how to play the hand on this. We are looking forward to having preliminary talks with Harriman here. My inclination is to do what I said in the House of Commons—press on in the first instance to see whether accommodation can be reached to get the full ban. But at the same time we must be practical. If Khrushchev really drops the offer [Page 768] of inspection and we cannot meet him by any form of accommodation, then I feel we should not let slip the very big prize of the modified ban, which of course may be possible if it is true that he will not now try to insist on the unpoliced moratorium on underground tests. Alternatively there may be alternative proposals about underground tests such as you mentioned at Birch Grove.1 At any rate we must get agreement if we can. For then we may be able to approach much more effectively the problems that we have with France, Germany, etc. And Khrushchev also may be able to do something with China. So even the second prize may turn out well worth having and would certainly be fatal to lose.
These, however, are only my first thoughts.
Yours very sincerely
End of message.
- Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Kaysen Series, Disarmament, Harriman Mission, Telegrams 7/1/63-7/6/63. Secret; Personal. The time of transmission is 1904 Zulu.↩
- See Documents 304–306.↩
- This letter crossed a letter from Kennedy to Macmillan, also dated July 4, in which the President stated that he agreed with “what you said in the House yesterday,” particularly “that the most important thing at the moment is try to keep our French and German friends from throwing any cold water in public.” Kennedy asked for Macmillan’s thoughts on possible ways of leading de Gaulle to a “less negative attitude.” (Department of State, Presidential Correspondence: Lot 66 D 204, Kennedy-Macmillan 1963, Vol. III)↩