Office of the Historian

39. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation Between Secretary of State Rusk and Dean Acheson0

Washington, July 1, 1961, 10:46 a.m.

TELEPHONE CALL FROM MR. ACHESON

The Sec returned the call and A said he had a visit from McCloy and Dean who were disturbed. They wondered whether there is a master-mind running affairs of the US and whether it is thought out re their mission to Moscow if it is the right thing to be doing when the other program is in mind which they discussed the day before yesterday.1 How does it appear to people with whom we are talking there? Our friends? Our country? Are we going up and down at the same time. The Sec asked [Page 103] when they talked. A said till 6:30 or later. The Sec said he came in and made a flat statement he could not run out on this deal. The Sec called the Pres and told him that rather than have the Soviets in a position to say we ran out on this Jack and he felt he should go over and come back after 3-4 days. A said he2 is concerned about what he should be doing. The Sec said he wants to go down a track we don’t want him to—he has been thinking he has to debate on some substantive issues on disarmament. The Sec will get hold of him because if he has misgivings he did not express them. A said he3 spent the afternoon with Zorin and talked with A until 7—then they went off and asked A to call the Sec which he thought they might have done. The Sec said if they have thoughts like these they should have expressed them before announcing they had to go to Moscow. The Sec will get Jack. A said Jack is salmon-fishing for two days with McNamara and Lemnitzer. The Sec said we talked about these problems but he was so flat on making good on this deal we went ahead. A thinks it can wait until they get back. The Sec said maybe we want to shift the Moscow date to a brief quardripartite mtg on the Forum—it was a quadripartite meeting which set up the Comm of 10. A thinks if the Sec turns it over in his mind until the 5th of July that will be plenty of time. They don’t go until the 14th. A said they asked if it were discussed with him by the Sec or others and A said no—no reason that it should be. They wondered if it had been thought about fully. The Sec said it was thought about in connection with Berlin. They asked M to talk with Zorin—this is foolish when Berlin is as it is. But the Sec is not sure M did. The Sec is surprised he did not mention to A that he did talk about it with the Sec.

  1. Source: Department of State, Rusk Files: Lot 72 D 192, Telephone Conversations. No classification marking. Transcribed by Phyllis D. Bernau, Rusk’s Personal Assistant.↩
  2. Not further identified.↩
  3. Acheson is referring to Jack McCloy.↩
  4. i.e., McCloy.↩