SECRETARY HERTER'S STATEMENT THAT THE USSR WILL BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THE AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR OF THE ENTIRE COMMUNIST BLOC.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01446R000100070001-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 30, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 8, 1959
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release499
MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION
80-01446RW, 60
8 October 1959
SUBJECT: Secretary Herter's statement that the USSR will be
held responsible for the aggressive behavior of the
entire Communist Bloc.
Participants: Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Berding
and the undersigned.
1. I have known Mr. Berding for a number of years, often
meeting in the house of mutual friends. On the day before Berding's
departure for Geneva, second installment, we had cocktails together
and discussed at length the situation facing us in Geneva and the world
at large. In the course of our discussion, I mentioned our concept of
the Bloc as a "socialist commonwealth. " Berding was impressed and
asked me to send a copy of SRS-10 to his secretary who would pouch it
to Geneva immediately. This was done.
2. On 7 October, I again had an opportunity of talking to
Berding. I expressed my pleasure concerning Secretary Herter's state-
ment (repeated by Mr. Dillon the next day) and asked him whether he had
read SRS-10 and what he thought about it. He replied that he was impressed,
that he thought "there was a lot of sound thinking" in that paper, and that
he generally agreed with its propositions. We then discussed Sino-Soviet
relations. He felt that it was dangerous to entertain any optimistic illusions
about serious frictions, and I suggested to him the thesis of a "dialectic"
relationship, comparing the cooperation between the USSR and Red China
with that of the earlier Soviet Foreign Commissariat and the Comintern
as respectively responsible and irresponsible. He seemed quite struck
with this idea.
3. He then told me that in a week he would have to speak before
the Association of Broadcasters and asked me whether I could help him
obtain some background material to expound the points we had discussed.
I promised to send to him some of the SRS papers (which I immediately
proceeded to do) and he then asked me whether I could furnish him with
a couple of paragraphs that he might use. I replied that I would do that
gladly once I had his explicit questions so that I could answer to the point.
He said he would call me about these questions as soon as he had read the
papers I sent him.
Approved For Release 199
 . Approved For Release 1999/09/08 : CIA-RDP80-01446R000100070001-9
4. I don't know, and I did not ask Berding, whether he had
shown SRS-10 to Secretary Herter. But I may point out that l had hours
of conversation with George Morgan, now Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Planning, on this subject on the way to the Los Angeles Conference
last June. He accepted our proposition and seemed impressed with
SRS-10 which we made available to him. It is not impossible that as
a result of this line of thinking, the Policy Planning Staff suggested
Secretary Herter's announced views.
25X1A9a
SRS/ DDI
... i WWI I ML
Approved For Release 1999/09/08 : CIA-RDP80-01446R000100070001-9