“Kennedy To Meet Khrushchev Soon”

Press, Volume C, Issue 29516, 18 May 1961, Page 15

“Kennedy To Meet Khrushchev Soon”

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) NEW YORK, May 17. Agreement had been reached on an informal conference between President Kennedy and Mr Khrushchev, official sources in Washington said, according to “New York Times” today. Barring unforeseen difficulties, the informants said, the meeting would take place in Vienna two or three days after the President completed his visit to France, from May 31 to June 2, for talks with President de Gaulle.

Diplomatic sources quoted by the “New York Times” said they had not been informed officially that the conference definitely had been arranged. But, they said they believed "it was going on.”

Yesterday, President Kennedy received a personal note from Mr Khrushchev. It was delivered by the Soviet Ambassador (Mr Menshikov) who had a 30-minute talk with the President. Later, Mr Menshikov and the White House press secretary. Mr Pierre Salinger, refused to discuss the contents of the message. They also declined to say whether the conversation between the President and the ambassador had dealt with a possible meeting, between the two leaders.

The only information volunteered by Mr Menshikov was that Mr Khrushchev’s message was a reply to one from the President on February 22. State Department officials were equally reticent, the “New York Times ” said. They did say, however, that there was nothing in the message, either in tone or

substance, that would impede a meeting between the two leaders.

Other officials gave the impression that Mr Khrushchev’s message had, in fact, facilitated an agreement on a meeting, the “New York Times” said. In London, "The Times” said today that a meeting between President Kennedy and Mr Khrushchev was likely to take place sooner or later. “Such an encounter tete-a-tete would be different in kind and in purpose from the laboriously - prepared summit meetings,” the newspaper said. “It need neither affront nor frighten Britain on that account.

"A Kennedy - Khrushchev meeting could only be exploratory, and President Kennedy—still smarting after the Cuban fiasco, suspicious of Communist intentions in Laos, and angry at the Russian stonewalilng tactics in the nuclear tests negotiations —is less likely than ever to give anything away even in the most tentative talks.” In Paris, French radio and newspaper correspondents forecast today that President Kennedy and Mr Khrushchev would meet in Vienna on June 3, the day after the President ends his visit to Paris.

The Washington correspondents of all Paris newspapers said an official announcement would be made in a few days’ time. Both “Figaro” and “Aurore" said the French and British Governments had been told of the President’s plans to meet the Soviet Prime Minister.