Office of the Historian

189. Telegram From the Embassy in the United Kingdom to the Department of State1

London, April 28, 1957—2 p.m.

5857. USDEL Disarmament No. 153.

1. It is the appraisal of the USDEL that the most recent Soviet memorandum and the Zorin explanations2 indicate a serious intention of the Soviet Union to endeavor to negotiate a partial agreement. It is a “hard bargaining” opening in such a process of negotiation. It pointedly avoids the completely unacceptable proposals for complete elimination of foreign bases and complete elimination of nuclear weapons and for the initial inclusion of the Peoples Republic of China. Negotiability of other issues has been stated by Zorin. It will be extremely difficult, however, to attain the essential objectives and fit together terms under which additional states would be willing to abstain in the nuclear weapons field and which, at the same time, are acceptable to the United Kingdom, U.S. and Soviet Union.

Whitney
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 330.13/4–2857. Secret.↩
  2. See telegrams 5847 and 5854, Document 187 and supra, respectively.↩