Office of the Historian

236. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Germany0

Washington,November 5, 1963, 8:15 p.m.

1364. Paris also pass USRO. After Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin’s call on Under Secretary re inclusion West Berlin in test ban treaty, Secretary saw Dobrynin to inquire whether he had any reply to make to representations Secretary had made November 4 to Kornienko, Minister Soviet Embassy.1 [Page 624] Dobrynin replied in negative and disclaimed any knowledge of incident. He asserted however that US convoy must have been expecting trouble since they were equipped with sleeping bags, rations, etc.

Secretary expressed astonishment at Soviet action in view of information we had passed to local Soviet military authorities in Germany on October 29 of procedures which we had followed for years. Secretary mentioned other considerations as taken up with Kornienko and reported in Deptel 1344 to Bonn. Dobrynin had nothing to add.2

Rusk
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 38–10. Confidential; Priority. Drafted by Davis and approved and initialed by Rusk. Repeated to Berlin, Paris, London, Moscow, SHAPE, U.S. Element Live Oak, CINCEUR, USAREUR, USAFE, and USUN.↩
  2. The meeting with Dobynin took place at 6:10 p.m.; regarding the meeting with Kornienko, see Document 234.↩
  3. At about the same time that Rusk and Dobrynin were meeting, the Soviets agreed to release the convoy without the troops dismounting or lowering the tailgates of the trucks. (Telegram 641 from Berlin, November 6; Department of State, Central Files, POL 38–10) Despite this release the Washington Ambassadorial Group agreed that a protest note to the Soviet Union should be sent by each of the three Western powers. For text of this note, see Documents on Germany, 1944–1985, pp. 857–858; for text of the Soviet reply, November 21, see ibid., pp. 858–859.↩