The Kremlinologist: Llewellyn E Thompson, America's Man in Cold War Moscow

600 Pages·2018·13.083 MB·English

by  Jenny Thompson, Sherry Thompson

The KRemlinologist ß
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Johns Hopkins Nuclear History and Contemporary Affairs
martin J. sherwin, Series Editor
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The KRemlinologist
llewellyn e thompson

America’s man in Cold war moscow
Jenny Thompson and sherry Thompson
Johns hopKins UniveRsity pRess
Baltimore
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© 2018 Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2018
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363
www.press.jhu.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Thompson, Jenny, 1949– author. | Thompson, Sherry, 1954– author.
Title: The Kremlinologist : Llewellyn E Thompson, America's man in Cold War
Moscow / Jenny Thompson and Sherry Thompson.
Description: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, [2018] | Series:
Johns Hopkins nuclear history and contemporary affairs | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017017066 | ISBN 9781421424095 (hardcover : alk. paper)
|ISBN 9781421424545 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781421424101 (electronic)
| ISBN 1421424096 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 1421424541 (pbk. : alk.
paper) | ISBN 142142410X (electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Thompson, Llewellyn, 1904–1972. | United States—Foreign
relations—1945–1989. | United States—Foreign relations—Soviet Union. |
Ambassadors—United States—Biography. | Soviet Union—Foreign
relations—United States. | Cold War—Diplomatic history. |
Diplomats—United States—Biography. | World politics—1945–1989.
Classification: LCC E748.T518 T56 2018 | DDC 327.7304709/04—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017017066
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales
at 410-516-6936 or [email protected].
Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper
that is composed of at least 30 percent post- consumer waste, whenever possible.
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For our families
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction. Llewellyn E Thompson:
A Cold War Owl in the Cause of Peace 1
PArt I ® Expectations and Education
1 The Beginning 5
2 Into the World 13
3 To Moscow 19
4 The Siege of Moscow 26
5 The Germans in Retreat 39
6 Conferences 48
7 The Hot War Ends and the Cold War Begins 56
8 The Truman Doctrine 61
9 The Birth of Covert Operations 69
10 Overseas Again 80
PArt II ® Negotiations
11 Chief of Mission 91
12 The Trieste Negotiations 101
13 The Austrian State Treaty Negotiations 116
14 Open Skies, Closed Borders 132
PArt III ® Diplomacy
15 Khrushchev’s Decade (1953–1964) 149
16 Moscow 2 152
17 Khrushchev’s First Gamble: Berlin Poker 165
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18 Dueling Exhibitions 180
19 The Russian Is Coming 190
20 U- 2: The End of Détente 202
21 Picking Up the Pieces 222
22 Working for the New President 233
23 Meeting in Vienna 246
24 The Twenty- Second Congress of the Communist Party 266
25 Up the Down Escalator: The Thompson- Gromyko Talks 274
26 Goodbye Moscow, Hello Washington 284
27 Thirteen Days in October 298
28 Limited Test Ban 334
PArt IV ® Policy
29 The Lyndon Johnson Years 357
30 Strand One: Vietnam (1962–1967) 366
31 Thompson’s Vietnam 370
32 Strand Two: Nonproliferation (1962–1967) 391
33 Strand Three: The Road to SALT (1962–1967) 404
34 Moscow 3 413
35 The Six- Day War: Hotline Diplomacy 428
36 Glassboro: The Summit That Wasn’t (June 23–25, 1967) 435
37 1968: A Year of Frustrated Promise 451
38 “Retirement,” So to Speak 465
Notes 479
Bibliography 567
Index 573
viii ß Contents
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Acknowledgments
we do not belong to an academic institution, and therefore our project was self-
funded. Our older half- sister, whose life was a black hole of sorrow, died in a
nursing home, bedridden by the toxic effect of drugs given to combat mental
illness. She left us a small inheritance that enabled us to move forward with the research
for and writing of this book. And so we dedicate it to our parents and to her.
We are extremely grateful to the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the Depart-
ment of State for putting the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series of his-
torical documents online, as well as to other institutions, like the presidential libraries,
that have also made so much available, including the presidential recordings at the Univer-
sity of Virginia’s Miller Center and the amazing collection of oral histories at the Foreign
Affairs Oral History Program of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. We
could not have attempted this project if we’d started ten years sooner. The developments
of the Internet and, along with it, Google, Skype, and e- books were essential. Technology
has completely revolutionized research by making it more democratic, because primary
source documents are available to everyone.
What was more important, and much more enjoyable, were the amazing and wonder-
ful people who encouraged and cajoled us, made essential introductions, translated docu-
ments, argued, critiqued, confided, remembered, and shared both wisdom and memories.
In particular, we want to express our appreciation to our husbands for their support and
patience throughout this long project, as well as to Donald Lamm, David Langbart, Pris-
cilla McMillan, and Martin J. Sherwin, who also believed in us from beginning to end. Our
profound thanks go to our editor, Elizabeth S. Demers, at Johns Hopkins University Press,
and to our copy editor, Kathleen Capels, both of whom meticulously went over our man-
uscript and improved it. We are also indebted to Barbara Stetzl- Marx from the Boltzmann
Institute, one of the first people to take us seriously and who generously invited us to par-
ticipate in the conference she organized on the Vienna summit. We are grateful to the
Foreign Service Journal for publishing our article on the Trieste negotiation in 2008.
ix
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