Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower papers, Whitman file
Memorandum to the President, by the Special Assistant to the President (Jackson) 1
- Subject:
- Briefing memo for Saturday’s “Candor” breakfast.2
After last week’s conversation with you on the “Candor” speech, I got in touch with Messrs. J. F. Dulles, Wilson, W. B. Smith, Strauss, Radford and Stassen 3 and asked them the questions you suggested. I also asked that they give me their own personal replies, and not something cooked up by their staffs.
The returns are now all in.
This memo does not attempt to represent the consensus or a compromise between different viewpoints. It does, however, represent my personal point of view, with which I believe the majority would concur, except on some matters of detail. I am sending it to you in that form in order to serve as a springboard for the Saturday’s discussion.
The need for a frank speech on the atomic age and Continental Defense is, if anything, greater than ever. The speech should be televised, and the fact that you read it will add rather than detract from its importance and solemnity. Other personalities or the use of props would detract.
The speech should be given as soon as possible—certainly before Congress reconvenes, and preferably during October or not later than the first week in November.
As you said yourself, the speech must contain more than just “attack” and “retaliation”, which is what a speech dealing only [Page 1225] with The Bomb and Continental Defense would be. It must besides contain a tremendous lift for the world—for the hopes of men everywhere.
That lift has got to be something much more than what is at the end of the current draft, namely, the withdrawal of Russian and Allied forces from Germany. It has got to be a packaged concept which will fulfill the three requirements Foster Dulles has in mind:
- 1.
- It should contain new and fresh proposals which could be acceptable to the Russians if they possess a shred of co-existential reasonableness or desire.
- 2.
- If it is accepted in whole or in part by the Russians, the Western position must not be seriously impaired or jeopardized thereby.
- 3.
- It must be of such a nature that its rejection by the Russians, or even prolonged foot-dragging on their part, will make it clear to the people of the world, not just to the Governments, that we must all prepare for the worst, and that the moral blame for the armaments race, and possibly war, is clearly on the Russians.
Some of the group feel that you should do this in two bites, separated by not more than a week; the first bite taking care of the atomic aspects, the second bite, the lift. Personally, I feel it should be done all at once, otherwise it will lose impact, if for no other reason than that the audiences will not be the same each time, and therefore a lot of people will only hear first-hand part of the story.
The script which you now have covers The Bomb and Continental Defense pretty well, and those sections almost intact could be adapted to a new draft.
What is missing is the “package”.
I suggest, if you can get broad policy agreement in Saturday’s meeting, that Foster Dulles be given the responsibility for producing the contents of the package. He has already given this much thought. To Emmet Hughes would go the responsibility for the production of the whole speech.
I would also suggest that for the time being, conversation on the subject of this speech be restricted to the present group, correspondence likewise, on an “Eyes Only” basis, and that possible coordination with our allies be conducted through personal Presidential courier instead of by code through the Embassy machinery. When you have an acceptable, or nearly acceptable, draft it will be time enough for the staffs at State, Defense, and AEC to pick over it.
This can not only be the most important pronouncement ever made by any President of the United States, it could also save [Page 1226] mankind. It therefore rates the concentrated attention of the Government’s top brains.4
- The handwritten notation by the President, “file/DE”, appears on the source text.↩
- According to the President’s appointment book, he held an off-the-record breakfast meeting at 8 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 3. The following were present: Secretary Dulles, C. D. Jackson, Admiral Strauss, Admiral Radford, Governor Stassen, Allen Dulles (Director of Central Intelligence), Emmet John Hughes (Administrative Assistant to the President), and Maj. John Eisenhower (the President’s son). (Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower records, “President—Daily Appointments”)↩
- See the letter of Sept. 25, supra.↩
- For a chronology of events in the drafting of the Atoms for Peace speech, see the memorandum for the files, dated Sept. 30, 1954, p. 1526. Certain preliminary drafts and other related documentation are contained in the Eisenhower Library, C. D. Jackson papers, “Atoms for Peace Evoulution”.↩