229. Editorial Note
On October 6, 1970, 2:15 p.m., Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Henry Kissinger met in the Map Room of the White House with Soviet Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Dobrynin. During the meeting, Dobrynin handed Kissinger two communications from the Soviet Government: one dealing with Jordan, and the other dealing with the situation in Cienfuegos, Cuba. Kissinger’s memorandum of conversation notes that the Soviet Government stated that it had not done and would not do anything that would contradict the understanding on Cuba reached between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1962. The memorandum of conversation is published in Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, volume XII, Soviet Union, January 1969–October 1970, Document 224.
In an October 7 memorandum to Kissinger, William Hyland of the National Security Council Staff observed that while the Soviet communication was “obviously intended to be conciliatory,” it implied “a reaffirmation of the 1962 understanding but on the basis of the status quo,” i.e., the acceptance of the current facilities at Cienfuegos, and perhaps their improvement. The memorandum from Hyland to Kissinger is published ibid., Document 225.