| //Source: American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1960,p. 476. No classification marking. |
ESTEEMED MR. KENNEDY, Allow me to congratulate you on the occasion of your election to the high post of the President of the United States.
We hope that while you are at this post the relations between our countries would again follow the line along which they were developing in Franklin Roosevelt's time, which would meet the basic interests not only of the peoples of the U.S.S.R. and the United States but all mankind which is longing for deliverance from the threat of a new war.
I think you will agree that the eyes of many people are fixed on the United States and the Soviet Union because the destinies of world peace depend largely on the state of Soviet-American relations.
We have declared and declare our respect for the peaceable and gifted people of the United States and we are ready to develop the most friendly relations between the Soviet and the American peoples, between the Governments of the U.S.S.R. and the United States.
We are convinced that there are no insurmountable obstacles to the preservation and consolidation of peace.
For the sake of this goal we are ready, for our part, to continue efforts to solve such a pressing problem as disarmament, to settle the German issue through the earliest conclusion of a peace treaty and to reach agreement on other questions, the solution of which could bring about an easing and improvement of the entire international situation.
Any steps in this direction will always meet with the full understanding and support of the Soviet Government.
I wish you fruitful activity in the responsible capacity of United States President and prosperity to the American people./1/
/1/ Printed from an unsigned copy. Back