Richard Nixon exposed to radiation on Moscow trip in 1959, documents reveal

The documents have been published as part of a series on the Soviet use of radiation of different kinds against US targets, including the exposure of the US embassy in Moscow to microwave radiation for many years. The records have fresh relevance in light of the current mystery surrounding Havana Syndrome, a cluster of mostly neurological symptoms suffered by scores of US diplomats and spies in recent years.

After Secret Service agents denounced Soviet dirty tricks in earshot of the listening devices in the residence, the radiation stopped.

On the first evening of the visit, on 23 July 1959, the dosimeter readings climbed rapidly, leading a senior military official in the entourage, Adm Hyman Rickover, an expert on nuclear naval propulsion, to suspect that there had been a nuclear accident. Rickover and the US ambassador, Llewellyn Thompson, agreed not to tell Nixon.