Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XVI, Eastern Europe; Cyprus; Greece; Turkey

91. Telegram From the Embassy in Yugoslavia to the Department of State⁰

Belgrade, June 8, 1961, 6 p.m.

1012. Called on Tito this morning to brief him on Vienna meeting.¹ Only other person present at interview was Tito’s new political secretary, Crnobranja.

Gave briefing orally and in rough summary. Tito seemed pleased and appreciative that I had done this. He made no substantive comment other than that the Soviet position on tripartite organization of United Nations Secretariat and control organization for weapons testing inspection with veto provision was also quite unacceptable to Yugoslavs. It appeared to assume, he indicated, some sort of neutral bloc capable of acting as a body, and this did not exist. His general reaction to what I told him of results of Vienna was that meeting was useful first step and it was to be hoped that both governments would now review their own positions carefully with view to seeing whether mutual concessions could not be made. He felt that if only one of the great problems could be solved this would itself be of great usefulness in improving atmosphere for further agreements.

Before leaving I drew his attention to fact that final session of Press Law talks was now in progress and that I had authorized Lisle, in event of continued disagreement, to present note announcing closure of reading rooms. He immediately said this must not happen, that there was no reason why our reading rooms could not continue their activities in manner wholly satisfactory to us. Yugoslav intent had not been to make any serious difficulties. He was prepared to give me his personal assurance that if agreement could be reached among our negotiators today every liberality would be shown in treatment of reading rooms. I told him that I had just received messages authorizing our negotiators to make substantial concessions this morning,² and that I hoped reciprocal concessions would be made on the Yugoslav side. He said he would personally intervene at once in matter. Before leaving I spoke of uneasiness evidenced by some of our local employees over their personal position vis-à-vis Yugoslav authorities as they attempt to carry out their functions as employees our government, and said I hoped it would be possible to find means of reassuring them that Yugoslav Government saw no conflict between this work and their status as loyal Yugoslav citizens. I asked that any doubts or questions Yugoslav Government might have as to propriety of their actions be brought first to my attention and not to theirs, and to this he assented.³

Kennan

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 611.61/6–861. Limited Official Use.
1. Reference is to President Kennedy’s June 2–4 summit meeting with Soviet Chairman Khrushchev.
2. Telegram 852 to Belgrade, June 8, authorized Kennan to seek assurances “outside of the memorandum” regarding the treatment of U.S. reading rooms. (Department of State, Central Files, 611.685/6–361)
3. An agreement on USIS facilities in Belgrade, signed on June 14, provisionally entered into force the same day, and definitively entered into force on December 28 following ratification by the Yugoslav Parliament. For text, see 20 UST 2826.