Office of the Historian

34. Notes by Secretary of State Rusk0

Washington, March 18, 1961.

The following notes were drafted by the Secretary, who asked that they be passed to Mr. Kohler for inclusion in his notes of the Gromyko meeting:

“After the group discussion, I called Gromyko aside briefly and gave him the line agreed in Mr. Bohlen’s ‘stick’ memorandum.1 I said [Page 94] that I was speaking privately with him on the basis of a talk I had with the President. Mr. Gromyko picked up my word ‘underestimate’ in the last point and said, ‘But don’t underestimate us either.’ He asked me to tell the President that the Soviet Union ‘wants nothing’ in Laos. He added that if we had any proposals about Laos they would be at our disposal.

Since we had discussed a variety of possibilities with him in the group discussion and had no indication of interest in a settlement in Laos, I concluded that the Soviets are content to let matters develop on the ground and were not interested in serious discussions at this stage.

D.R.”2
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 751J.00/3–1861. Top Secret. Delivered to Kohler at 10:30 a.m. on March 19. These notes are an addendum to the memorandum of a meeting, which lasted from 2:45 to 6 p.m., between Rusk and Gromyko. (Ibid.) Gromyko was in New York for a resumed session of the U.N. General Assembly and traveled to Washington for discussion on March 18. After seeing Gromyko, Rusk told the British and French Ambassadors that the length of the meeting was misleading, it could have been accomplished in less than an hour. Rusk said he tried to find out what the Soviets really expected to happen in Laos—the government they foresaw, their attitude towards continued fighting, their general estimate of the situation. Rusk stated that Gromyko was “completely elusive,” refused to give substantive answers, and repeatedly returned to the Soviet proposal that discussions on Laos must begin with an international conference. (Memorandum of conversation, March 18; ibid.)↩
  2. Parsons prepared a briefing memorandum, March 17, for Rusk’s talks with Gromyko, which he described as the “carrot”. Bohlen prepared a memorandum, also March 17, which Parsons called “the stick”, but it has not been found. (Both ibid., 751J.00/3–1761)↩
  3. Printed from a copy that bears these typed initials.↩