272. Memorandum From the Under Secretary of State (Katzenbach) to President Johnson1
SUBJECT
Negotiations with the Soviet Union on Renewal of Exchanges Agreement
The Soviets have now agreed to open negotiations in Moscow on June 3 for the US–USSR Exchanges Agreement for 1968–69.2
The negotiations are likely to suffer from the effects of two major Soviet preoccupations. Dissent among their own intellectuals and the [Page 648] recent unsettling developments in Eastern Europe have led to sharpened Soviet efforts to guard against “hostile foreign influences.”
The negotiations will also be further complicated because the expected Soviet negotiators are all newcomers to the exchanges program with the United States as a result of reorganization in Moscow.
The Soviet draft of the proposed agreement would reduce some types of exchanges compared to the levels in the last agreement. In two areas of paramount interest to us-exhibits and performing arts-the draft avoids specific commitments. (However, contracts for one exchange of performing groups have been signed in anticipation of an agreement, and we have had some indication that the Soviets intend to move forward with exchanges of other groups.)
In the negotiations, our objective will be to preserve the 10-year-old framework for reciprocal exchanges and to ensure continuation of some activity in all previous categories of exchanges, including performing arts attractions and exhibits. We will insist on the principle of a balanced program which reflects the interests of both sides. We will require preservation of protective language which assures us reciprocity in these exchanges. Our ultimate pressure on the Soviets would be to refuse to conclude an agreement which does not meet these requirements.
Although we will seek to maintain the same level of exchanges activities as that envisaged in the previous agreement, we recognize in the present political climate the need to be flexible. Our draft proposes some innovations and expansions, but we expect the Soviets to reject any new activities that might be represented as an advance in exchanges or an improvement in relations with the United States.
I will report to you further before the negotiations are concluded.
- Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1967–69, EDX 4 US–USSR. Confidential. Drafted by Boris H. Klosson and Arthur I. Wortzel (both EUR/SES) and cleared by Toon, CU/EUR, and USIA. Rostow forwarded the memorandum to the President under a May 31 covering memorandum. (Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, USSR, Vol. XIX)↩
- Records of the meetings are in the National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1967–69, EDX US–USSR. Emory Swank, Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow, reported to the Department on the progress of negotiations in telegrams 4164, June 8; 4237, June 13; and 4312, June 19. (Ibid., EDX 4 US–USSR)↩