TOPIC OF GROMYKO'S SECRET TALKS WITH JOHNSON-RUSK LEAKED TO PRESS
When Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko held secret talks with President Johnson and Secretary of State Dean Rusk in October, there was wide speculation as to the subject matter. Persistent rumors held that the People's Republic of China was one of the main topics discussed by the representative of the Soviet Union and the two representatives of American imperialism.
This has now been confirmed by the New York Times. In an article signed by the paper's Washington correspondent, William Beecher, the Times revealed some of the details November 22. They add up to evidence of one of the grossest betrayals in Soviet diplomatic history. At the very moment when American imperialism is reaching new heights of savagery in its war on the Vietnamese people and steadily increasing the threat to China -- thuis while one workers state is under imperialist attack and another faces possible attack at any time -- Gromyko coolly told the White House and the State Department that the real danger lay in the direction of Peking! Truly not much has changed in the Kremlin's diplomacy since the days when Gromyko operated under the personal direction of his master Stalin.
In his talks with U.S. officials, said the Times, Gromyko "repeatedly stressed his nation's concern over a China armed with a growing arsenal of nuclear weapons.... According to some high American officials, the Russians have transferred special intelligence units and equipment to the border to monitor Chinese tests of missiles and nuclear warheads. These units were said to have focused previously on United States military activities."
"The discussions between Mr. Gromyko and the American officials were said to have ranged over a wide spectrum of world problems," continued the Times, "but to have returned often to the Chinese question."
An official "with access to the details of the conversations, " was quoted as declaring, "Mr. Gromyko made clear that the break with China is quite fundamental and that Russia is now more interested than ever in settling other outstanding issues."
This includes a treaty banning the spread of nuclear weapons, according to a Washington official, but does not extend “unfortunately" to the war in Vietnam.
Here are some more choice bits: Gromyko felt that none of the disputes with China were worth a war "but that in a period of continuing ill-will between the two countries, there was always the danger that neither would be willing to back off from a small border clash and that such clashes could escalate and lead to a nuclear explosion."
Gromyko also implied that "as frictions continued to increase between the Soviet Union and China, a confrontation might develop. Mr. Gromyko was said to have indicated concern that the Chinese leadership might be tempted to launch an atomic attack."
The Kremlin's spokesman told the American imperialist leaders in addition that while the Soviet Union has such vast superiority in nuclear weapons that it ought to deter "any logical leadership group from initiating a nuclear strike...the Russians are not at all sure that Peking will always be guided by rationality in such matters."
The shamelessness of Gromyko's application of the Kremlin's line of "peaceful. coexistence" with imperialism can be judged from the fact that in the same account, “experts on China" -- Washington's experts! -- were reported as agreeing that "for now at least, China is as eager as the Soviet Union to avoid a serious armed clash along the border." They noted that China has been involved in only two border clashes: once with India in 1962 and once with the U.S. in Korea in 1950 when U.S. troops were knifing toward the Yalu. In both instances, the clashes occurred with capitalist countries.