508 Foreign Relations, 1958-1960, Volume IX



time we would be ready to discuss the world situation with the Soviet
Union. The President agreed that since the USSR took the responsibility
for scuttling the Summit Conference, we should leave the initiative to
the Soviets. Khrushchev had said in Paris that the dust had to settle be-
fore further discussions could take place. Khrushchev had even referred
to our elections and had indicated that he might prefer to deal with the
next U.S. Government or even with the government after that.
    Secretary Herter said another issue involved the question whether
we should take any abrupt action which might be considered un-
friendly. He had in mind particularly East-West Exchanges. It was the
feeling in the State Department that exchanges of visits between high
officials of the U.S. and high officials of the USSR should be called off
while the visits of ordinary citizens of either country should not be af-
fected. In this connection, the next planned exchange of high officials in-
volved a trip by Mr. Stans to the Soviet Union and a visit by Kosygin to
the U.S. The President believed the general rule was this: We went to the
Summit Conference to improve the world situation; the Summit Confer-
ence was broken off; but by and large the situation is now about the
same as it was before the break-up of the Summit Conference. Most of
the remarks made by Khrushchev in his Monday speech that had not
appeared in the letter which he showed De Gaulle and Macmillan the
day before had referred to him (the President). After Khrushchev's long
tirade, when the Secretary of State asked him when the cancellation of
the President's visit to Russia would be announced, Khrushchev took
off and explained the whole thing over again. Khrushchev made his can-
cellation of the visit personal. Accordingly, the President felt that if
the
Soviets desired to send a high official to visit the U.S., we should con-
sider receiving him. Mr. Dillon said it had already been arranged that
Kosygin would visit the U.S. Mr. Staats7 said Kosygin was coming here
before Mr. Stans visited the Soviet Union.8 The President said that in
that case he believed it was desirable to wait and see whether Kosygin
came. He thought we did not have to formulate a general policy but
should be able to handle high-level visits on an ad hoc basis. Secretary
Herter said he understood that in any case we would not for the present
interfere with the visits of lesser officials or with the travel of private
citi-
zens.
    Secretary Herter said another issue was the question of resumption
or continuation of the nuclear test agreement negotiations. The scientists


    7Elmer B. Staats, Executive Officer of the Operations Coordinating Board.
    8 Kosygin was scheduled to attend a textile convention in Atlantic City,
New Jersey,
early in June, but his visit was canceled by the Soviet Union. Maurice Stans,
Director of the
Bureau of the Budget, was scheduled to visit the Soviet Union at the end
of May and in
early June, but his visit was also canceled.