Telegram from Polish Embassy in Washington (Drozniak), 30 November 1962

Ciphergram No. 17488

Dispatched from Washington, D.C., on 11.30.1962 at 10:00 and received on 11.30.1962 at 21:50

Came to the Decoding Department on 11.30.1962 at 22:00

To: [Foreign Minister Adam] RAPACKI,¹ IMMEDIATELY, BUT NOT AT NIGHT

From: [Ambassador Edward] DROŻNIAK²

[This information has been compiled based on my] conversation with Comrade [Anastas] Mikoyan, [First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union]:

[Secretary of State Dean] Rusk and [Ambassador at Large Llewellyn] Thompson, who did not talk, as well as [Soviet Ambassador to the United States Anatoly] Dobrynin, participated in the conversation with President [John F. Kennedy]. The tone [of the conversation] was relaxed, but very serious. The main topic was Cuba. They briefly broached the issue of Laos. He [Mikoyan] will have meetings (unofficial ones) with [Secretary] Rusk and [US Attorney General] Robert Kennedy. The President evaded giving a formal guarantee of [US] non-aggression as far as Cuba, referring to the [Soviet] failure to keep the promise [to allow] inspections in Cuba. Mikoyan [counter-] attacked by pointing out that Khrushchev fully carried out the substantial promises [he had previously made]. [Mikoyan said that] it was Cuba’s sovereign right to consent or not to the inspections [on its territory]. [Fidel] Castro proposed that a multilateral inspection [could be carried out in Cuba and elsewhere]. [Mikoyan] outright asked whether K.[ennedy] was reneging on his promises. The President expressed his readiness to issue yet another personal declaration regarding the [US] non-aggression [towards Cuba]. [He said that such a declaration could be made], for example, at a press conference. Mikoyan insisted that [President Kennedy’s declaration] be of a formal nature and under the auspices of the United Nations. The President stated that as long as he remained the president he would keep his personal promise of non-aggression [towards Cuba]. The issue of [obtaining] the guarantees [of not invading Cuba] will be the subject of future discussions in New York.

Besides, the president called for maintaining status quo and, while joking, asked that [the Soviet Union] does not make any revolutions in other countries. Mikoyan stated that revolutions are taking place, and will continue to take place, whether with or without the [assistance of the] Soviet Union. He gave the example of Cuba. The president also stated that he was in the midst of preparations for disassembling of [US military] bases, for example, in Turkey. They talked about the [U-2 reconnaissance] flights over Cuba. The president stated that such flights were only flying at high altitudes. But M.[ikoyan] said that such flights were no less piratical [rover] than those carried out at low altitudes.

M.[ikoyan said] that he was pleased with his visit to Cuba. Initially, he was received [by the Cuban leadership] with anxiety, because the American press stated that M.[ikoyan] would be pressing for [Cuba] to agree to inspections. Mikoyan’s statements, [which were made] still prior to his departure from New York [and which concerned the Soviet support for Castro’s five points, as well as the process of the talks [he held with the Cuban leadership], fully calmed Castro down. [Mikoyan said that the talks in Havana] were very interesting and productive. [Mikoyan came to] a complete understanding with Castro and his farewell took place in a friendly manner. M.[ikoyan] assesses Cuba’s economic situation as a very difficult one.

[1] Adam Rapacki (1909 -1970), served as Poland’s foreign minister between 1956 and 1968.

[2] Edward Drożniak (1902 – 1966), Poland’s ambassador to the United States (1961-1966).