105. Memorandum of Conversation1
SUBJECT
- Intelsat and Intersputnik
PARTICIPANTS
- Anatoliy F. Dobrynin, Ambassador of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
- Eugene V. Rostow, Under Secretary for Political Affairs
At the Secretary’s dinner on the Honey Fitz, on August 19, Ambassador Dobrynin invited Under Secretary Rostow to withdraw for a private talk. The topics covered are treated in separate memoranda.
Rostow remarked that the reports about the Soviet space proposals were interesting. Why hadn’t they been given to us? Dobrynin said they had been made public, and Rostow referred to the fact that they [Page 198] had been handed to other members of Intelsat before being publicly announced. If the Soviets were serious about finding a politically appropriate way to cooperate in the field of satellite communications, Rostow said, we should be glad to discuss the problem with them. They knew the President’s policy in this regard, to which he had referred again recently in Glassboro. Dobrynin asked whether the question should be taken up in Vienna. Rostow said that Mr. Loy would be going to Vienna shortly, and would be glad to talk with the Soviet representative, but the problem could also be examined here privately if they wished to do so. As Dobrynin knew, Rostow had these matters on his plate.
- Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Central Files, 1967–69, TEL 6. Secret; Exdis. Drafted by Rostow on August 20 and approved by Robert Brown. The memorandum is Part III of IV.↩