November 3, 1962
Telegram from Polish Embassy in Washington (Drozniak), 3 November 1962
This document was made possible with support from Leon Levy Foundation
Ciphergram No. 16212
Dispatched from Washington, D.C., on 11.03.1962 at 16:00 and received on 04.11.1962 at 01:50
Came to the Decoding Department on 04.11.1962 at 01:55
To: [Foreign Ministry Director Eugeniusz] MILNIKIEL1 and [Juliusz] KATZ-SUCHY2
From: [Ambassador Edward] DROŻNIAK3
/From the conversation between [Mieczyslaw] Rakowski4 and [Deputy Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Walt] Rostow/.
R.[ostow] compared the initial stages of the armed conflict in Cuba to the [Japanese attacks on] Pearl Harbor [on 7 December 1941]. [He said that President] Kennedy was ready for war. The most pressing issue at the moment is a quick removal of the [Soviet] missiles from Cuba. The Americans are ready for serious disarmament talks and they are interested especially in reaching a treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. They [the Americans] are not planning on giving them [nuclear weapons] to the [West] Germans. [Rostow said that] this state of affairs would be difficult to maintain in case other countries [also] obtained nuclear weapons.
By dispatch to Moscow
[1] Eugeniusz Milnikiel (1905 -1969), former Polish ambassador to Great Britain (1953 -1956).
[2] Julisz Katz-Suchy (1912 – 1971), former Polish ambassador to the United Nations and ambassador to India (1957-1962).
[3] Edward Drożniak (1902 – 1966), Poland’s ambassador to the United States (1961-1966).
[4] Mieczyslaw Rakowski (1926 – 2008), Editor-in-Chief of Polityka weekly.
In a conversation between Drozniak and Deputy Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Walt Rostow, Rostow compares "the initial stages of the armed conflict in Cuba to the [Japanese attacks on] Pearl Harbor [on 7 December 1941]. [He said that President] Kennedy was ready for war. The most pressing issue at the moment is a quick removal of the [Soviet] missiles from Cuba."
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