257. Telegram From the Embassy in the Soviet Union to the Department of State1
84. The only subject of interest that developed during my call on Gromyko today was disarmament. He said the discussions in London were going much too slowly and that although Soviet proposals had been put forward on June 7 the U.S. Delegation had responded to them only in part and had not dealt with them fundamentally. When I stated I had not yet had an opportunity to study the papers in detail but had the impression that the problem of inspection and control still appeared to be one of the major obstacles he observed that the Soviet Delegation had accepted one of our suggestions, namely aerial inspection, [Page 656] but the American Delegation seemed to have lost interest in this plan. He referred specifically to the Soviet proposal concerning aerial inspection in Europe and part of Siberia and the U.S., to which I replied that I understood that we did not consider this proposal was a balanced one that was fair to both sides, and I assured him that the U.S. continued to be extremely interested in the subject of aerial inspection. In concluding the discussion of this subject I expressed the view that it seemed important to make a first step. Gromyko replied that we must always keep hope but he would not be frank if he did not say that the work of the sub-committee seemed to have slowed down and was not progressing satisfactorily. Although I opened up the subject of the new developments in the Soviet Government2Gromyko did not respond and as this was a formal call I did not press him.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 330.13/7–1257. Confidential. Repeated to London.↩
- Regarding the Soviet announcements of major changes in leadership positions in the Soviet Government beginning on July 3, see vol. xxiv, p. 142.↩
- Ambassador Llewellyn E. Thompson presented his credentials on July 16.↩