Office of the Historian

5. Airgram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Czechoslovakia0

Washington, October 27, 1961, 8:33 p.m.

A–15. Ref: Prague’s A–85 of October 14, 1961.1

Department agrees that Embassy should make an oral protest if the Czechs reinstitute the type of aggressive surveillance and harassment described in the airgram under reference. The Department should be notified as soon as possible after a new period of intensified harassment is instituted by the Czechs, and this notification should include the Embassy’s judgment of the probable causes behind the action, a brief survey of the methods used, and the Embassy’s opinion whether a protest should be made. The Department would then be in a position to judge the value of lodging a similar protest with the Czech Embassy.

The Department does not believe it would be either useful or practicable to threaten reciprocity as a means of compelling the Czechs to desist from harassment. Assuming that a future period of harassment will not go beyond the limits encountered in the past, we believe that any oral protest we make should follow the lines of the third paragraph of A–85 and the protests made by Ambassador Allison in May and August [Page 10] 1959 (Embtels 100 of August 24, 545 of May 7, 541 of May 6, 549 of May 11, and Deptels 81 of August 21 and 85 of August 22, 1959).2

For future reference the Embassy is requested to forward all available details of the British and French protests referred to in A–85.3

Rusk
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 611.49/10–1461. Confidential. Drafted by Segall, cleared by Tims and Moot, and approved by Vedeler.↩
  2. Not printed. (Ibid.)↩
  3. In telegram 100, Allison reported on his protest against Czech harassment of U.S. Embassy employees. (Ibid., 121.49/8–2459) Telegram 545 detailed a conversation at the Czech Foreign Office on the same subject. (Ibid., 611.49/5–759) Telegram 541 outlined the contents of a letter of protest delivered to Czech authorities. (Ibid., 611.49/5–659) In telegram 549, the Embassy reported that the Czechs had ceased surveillance of U.S. personnel. (Ibid., 611.49/5–1159) In telegram 81, the Department of State informed the Embassy that it believed that the Czechs had manufactured an incident to justify harassment of U.S. officials in Prague. (Ibid., 121.49/8–1959) Telegram 85 reported on U.S. demarches with Czech officials in Washington over harassment. (Ibid., 121.49/8–2259)↩
  4. No further documentation on this issue has been found.↩