August 13, 1968

Memo to JL

Just talked to Panofsky about Sakaroff. He made some inquiries while he

vs East and there is evidently no information whatsoever about his recent
whereabouts or activities and certainly nothing to give any hint about the
present reaction of the government or the party to his manifesto. There

seems to be nothing going on in the Russian papers about him whatsoever.
Panofsky's general view was that in the absence of any information about

the possible actions that the government may be taking against him that it
would be better to keep quite still. One theory is that they may tolerate his
free expression provided it does not get above a certain noise level but that
if it does become a cause celebre around the world that this may force them
to take some action on him. Of course, the government may be moving any of

a number of different directions at this time but he thinks it would be
rocking the boat to preceed without getting more information. He and Shiff
will be in Vienna later this month. They will have a chance to talk to

Tom and that might give basis for better judgment about possibility of any
concerted gz reaction.

From my own point of view I think I have to accept his judgment. I would
also make a clear distinction between a concerted reaction which was intended
to keep the issue alive and the kind of momentary comment that I put in at the
time of my column which would be of the same genre as the editorials in the

New York Times and so forth.

File - August 3rd