297. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant (Rostow) to President Johnson1
Mr. President:
I have now acquired copies of Sec. Rusk’s communications with Thompson in the Cherokee channel. They are attached.2
You may wish to go through them to see precisely where we stand. They include:
[Page 755]Tab A—Sec. Rusk’s message on time and place.3
Tab B—Thompson’s evaluation of what could and could not be achieved at the meeting. (His conclusion: mainly announcement of agreement on principles to guide missile talks.)4
Tab C—Dobrynin’s positive view with respect to Nixon’s presence.5
Tab D—Thompson’s talk with Gromyko of 29 November—mainly positive, but with Gromyko “not in a position to comment” on December 16-17 in Geneva. (para. 4)6
Tab E—Sec. Rusk’s instructions for Tommy to get with Dobrynin.7
Tab F—Thompson’s response of December 5 indicating that he has not yet been able to set up an appointment with Dobrynin.8
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Memos to the President, Rostow, Vol. 109, Box 43R. Top Secret; Cherokee; Eyes Only.↩
- None printed but summarized below.↩
- Rusk said that Dobrynin should be informed that the administration wanted the summit meeting to take place in Geneva on or about December 16-17. (Telegram 279345 to Moscow, November 28)↩
- The first of this seven-paragraph message from Ambassador Thompson to Secretary Rusk reads as follows: “While appreciate President’s desire to advance cause of peace before leaving office, I confess I am skeptical that much can be achieved at proposed meeting except announcement of agreement on principles to guide missile talks which I gather is already well prepared.” (Telegram 6643 from Moscow, November 29)↩
- Regarding Dobrynin’s personal attitude toward a summit meeting with Nixon, Thompson reported in part: “He said he was much in favor whether before or after inauguration. I put this information in letter to Bob Murphy dated Nov. 19.” (Telegram 6642 from Moscow, November 29) This letter has not been found.↩
- Telegram 6635 from Moscow, November 29. For a memorandum of Thompson’s telephone conversation with Secretary Rusk, November 29, on this subject, see Document 294.↩
- Secretary Rusk wondered whether Gromyko’s talk with Thompson (see footnote 6 above) was “supposed to be their answer to my conversation with Dobrynin” of November 25 (see Document 294, especially footnote 2), and he thus wanted Thompson to see Dobrynin “as soon as you can” to “try to get some feel from him as to Soviet thinking about a possible meeting now that he has been in town for a few days and may be able or willing to say somewhat more than did Gromyko.” (Rusk to Thompson, December 4, typewritten draft of telegram)↩
- Thompson reported in part that Dobrynin had been “delayed in arriving here by weather and Foreign Office now states he has been ill.” (Telegram 6728 from Moscow, December 5) Thompson apparently met with Dobrynin sometime between December 5-11. In a memorandum to President Johnson, December 11, 1968, Walt Rostow noted that Secretary Rusk had reported an additional cable from Thompson as follows: “I failed to report an additional observation of Dobrynin. He said that if the President decided not to go ahead with the meeting, that would be understood in Moscow and there would be no hard feelings.” The President wrote at the bottom of this memorandum, “I’m ready. Are they?” (Johnson Library, National Security File, Rostow Files, Strategic Missile Talks, Box 11)↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩