Office of the Historian

180. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, October 14, 1966, noon.

SUBJECT

  • US-Soviet Relations; Viet-Nam

PARTICIPANTS

  • U.S. Side:
    • The President
    • Ambassador Bruce
    • Mr. Francis Bator
    • Mr. Walter J. Stoessel, Jr.
  • U.K. Side:
    • The Foreign Secretary, George Brown
    • Sir Patrick Dean, British Ambassador

Following a private talk between the President and the Foreign Secretary, the President invited the group to walk with him around the White House grounds.

In the course of the conversation, the President spoke of the present state of US-Soviet relations, saying that he felt some progress was being made. He noted that we had a cultural agreement with the Soviet Union, that there was agreement that a civil air accord should be signed in the near future, negotiations on fisheries were proceeding, and the prospects were encouraging for a treaty on outer space. Both sides seemed to be working seriously on finding compromise language for a non-proliferation treaty. In general, the President said, he felt that our relations with the Soviet Union were better at present than they have ever been since he assumed the Presidency.

The President recalled his recent talk with Foreign Minister Gromyko.2 This had been frank and useful. So far as Viet-Nam was concerned, the principal change he detected in the Soviet position was that Gromyko had indicated that the Soviets now have some influence in North Viet-Nam and that, if the bombing were to cease, there was reason to hope that this would be followed by positive action on the part of the North. Previously, Gromyko had only urged us to stop the bombing and then we would see what would happen.

[Here follows five paragraphs on Vietnam.]

  1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1964–66, POL US–USSR. Secret; Limdis. Drafted and initialed by Stoessel and approved in the White House on November 10.↩
  2. See Documents 178 and 179.↩