63. Editorial Note
In a footnote to his biography of Robert Kennedy, Arthur Schlesinger stated:
“On June 18, 1962, Bolshakov gave Robert Kennedy a message from Khrushchev. Khrushchev said that, if the United States continued to insist on occupation rights in West Berlin, ‘the Soviet Union will face the necessity of signing a peace treaty with the GDR and the question of liquidation of war remnants will be solved and on this basis the situation in West Berlin—a free demilitarized city—would be normalized.’” (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times, page 535)
Although Schlesinger cites the Robert Kennedy papers as a source for this quote, no record of the message has been found at the Kennedy Library.