Sept. 19, 1963 - The Soviet Union invited President Kennedy (pictured with Nikita Khrushchev in June 1961) and 16 other heads of government today to join Premier Khrushchev in Moscow in 1964 to negotiate a treaty for “general and complete disarmament.” The invitation was conveyed by Andrei A. Gromyko, the Soviet Foreign Minister, in a statement to the U.N. General Assembly. He urged that other steps toward disarmament follow the signing of the treaty that prohibits all nuclear tests except those underground. Mr. Gromyko spoke of the World War II alliance between the Soviet Union, the U.S., and Britain when he emphasized the importance of the test ban treaty. President Kennedy will address the Assembly tomorrow morning. Adlai E. Stevenson, the chief U.S. representative at the U.N., said Mr. Gromyko’s speech was “encouraging.” “As usual,” Mr. Stevenson added, “Mr. Gromyko claimed all virtues for the Soviet Union and assigned all mistakes to the West. But he vigorously applauded the test-ban treaty, which, just a year ago, the Soviet Union vigorously rejected.”
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