Office of the Historian

60. Memorandum of Conversation1

SecDel/MC–7
New York, September 27, 1967, 8–11 p.m.

SECRETARY’S DELEGATION TO THE 22ND UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

New York—September–October 1967

SUBJECT

  • Outer Space Cooperation

PARTICIPANTS

  • U.S.
  • Secretary Rusk
  • Ambassador Thompson
  • Ambassador Goldberg
  • Ambassador Foster
  • Mr Stoessel
  • Mr. Krimer (Interpreter)
  • USSR
  • Foreign Minister Gromyko
  • Deputy Foreign Minister Soldatov
  • Ambassador Dobrynin
  • Ambassador Fedorenko
  • Mr. Mendelevich
  • Mr. Sukhodrev (Interpreter)

The Secretary referred to the news-ticker clipping he had shown Mr. Gromyko on Monday reporting the remarks of a Soviet scientist in Belgrade concerning Soviet-American cooperation in exploring other planets. He wanted to emphasize to Mr. Gromyko that we were interested in this type of cooperation. He did not think that it meant we would immediately proceed to send joint expeditions to the other planets, but we did want to stress our interest in future cooperation.2

  1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Central Files, 1967–69, SP 1–1 US–USSR. Secret; Exdis. The conversation took place at the Soviet Mission to the United Nations. Drafted by William D. Krimer, concurred in by Ambassador Goldberg, and approved in S on September 29. The memorandum is Part III of IV.↩
  2. On October 2 Ambassador Dobrynin spoke with Deputy Under Secretary Kohler and confirmed that after Rusk and Gromyko spoke on September 27, “Gromyko had put a note in his briefcase to check on the possibilities of space cooperation between our two countries.” (Ibid.)↩