61. Message From President Johnson to Chairman Kosygin1
Now that Foreign Minister Gromyko and Secretary Rusk have had a series of discussions of our mutual problems,2 I wish to reply to the message from your Government of November3, 1964, which was transmitted through Ambassador Dobrynin.3 I was particularly pleased to have the expression of the interest of your Government in first restraining and limiting the arms race, and then decisively reversing it. I think that we can take some satisfaction in the fact that both our Governments have been able, without formal agreement, to reduce our military budgets by amounts which may be small in relation to our total arms expenditure but are nevertheless of some significance in that we have both succeeded in putting an end to the annual increases in this heavy burden. I am able to tell you now that our budget for the fiscal year 1965 will call for expenditures in our Department of Defense of $47.9 billion, which is more than $2 billion less than was requested in my budget submitted to the Congress in January 1964.
As I have already touched upon disarmament questions in my New Year’s message to you,4 I will not discuss them further at this time, other than to say that I continue to believe deeply that there would be advantage to us all in progress toward the specific arrangements I have proposed. [Page 169] In particular, we are convinced that the interest of our two peoples, and indeed of all mankind, would be advanced by steps beyond the limited test ban treaty to prevent the dissemination of nuclear weapons. I am able to confirm to you once again that it is this fundamental policy that underlies all our actions in this field, including those about which your Government has expressed concern, in the area of the nuclear defense of the members of the North Atlantic Alliance. I remain convinced that if we work together with the common purpose of opposing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, we should be able to eliminate misunderstandings between us and serve our common interests.
I fully share your view that agreements reached between our Governments should be honestly observed by both sides, and I can assure you of our good faith on this score. Many of the problems which today plague the world, and which in one way or another involve the Soviet Union and the United States, are highly complex, both in their origins and in their ramifications. I am hopeful, however, that with good will on both sides, a steady and consistent effort to resolve them can succeed. We shall, of course, have to proceed step by step, but every success will, in my opinion, make the remaining problems easier to resolve. You may be sure that I am determined to persevere on this path.
[Here follows discussion of Article 19 of the U.N. Charter, various bilateral matters, and the President’s “hope for a visit from your side to the United States.”]5
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Head of State Correspondence File, Pen Pal Correspondence, Kosygin. Top Secret; Sensitive. The source text bears no salutation. Attached is a January 14 memorandum from Thompson to McGeorge Bundy in which Thompson indicated, inter alia, that he would give the message to Dobrynin during the latter’s call the same day.↩
- See footnote 1, Document 53.↩
- In his November 3, 1964, message to President Johnson, Kosygin discussed defense budget reductions, mutual cutback of troops in Europe, U.N. financing, and various bilateral matters. (Johnson Library, National Security File, Intelligence File, Arms Control Messages Exchanged Between President Johnson and Chairman, USSR—Vol. 1)↩
- Dated December 30; text in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964, Book II, pp. 1673-1674.↩
- Printed from an unsigned copy.↩