41. Editorial Note
During the first 2 weeks of August 1964, President Johnson and Chairman Khrushchev exchanged messages concerning two crises in Southeast Asia. Responding to a Soviet statement on the deteriorating situation in Laos, Johnson sent Khrushchev a message on August 1 urging the Soviet Union not to withdraw from its co-chairmanship under the 1962 Geneva Agreements. Khrushchev replied on August 7. Johnson’s message and a summary of Khrushchev’s reply are printed in Foreign Relations, 1964–1968, volume XXVIII, Documents 118 and 121. On August 5 Khrushchev wrote Johnson expressing his concern over events in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 2 and 4 and the U.S. air strike against North Vietnam. The President replied on August 7. Both messages are ibid., volume I, Documents 295 and 302.