Department of State Atomic Energy Files
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by Mr. John M. Hancock of the United States Delegation to the Atomic Energy Commission
At 11:30 a.m. I talked with Mr. Clayton at the State Department. I am dictating this memorandum immediately thereafter.
The first point was that the President had not given out a statement but that he is contemplating a press conference tomorrow and will unquestionably give out a statement tomorrow regarding the Wallace statement.
I told Clayton that we were considering and were studying to carry out three courses of action.
First: We were preparing a cold analysis of what Wallace said and we were putting against it what the American plan is, as contained in the document, along with any analysis or comment that seemed appropriate. We plan to give this out to the press because we have an obligation to our people and to the delegates of the other nations.
Second: We plan to write a letter to Mr. Wallace, with copies to the President and the State Department, in which we will go into our views of Mr. Wallace’s conclusions. This would be more the character of a personal letter, not intended for publication and not to be released by us at this time. I don’t want this to be any understanding of a commitment not to release it at some future time if conditions warrant, and we will make it very clear to Mr. Wallace in the letter itself.
Third: Mr. Baruch is probably now talking with Mr. Wallace to the general effect that Mr. Baruch has been a friend for years; that Wallace’s assumption of facts were very wrong; that they could have been verified in five minutes by telephone conversation; that Mr. Baruch is giving out a statement to the press regarding these facts; that he insisted in addition that Mr. Wallace retract his statement of facts.
I stress the fact that Mr. Baruch is offering the opportunity for Wallace to fly up here and get the facts as early as this afternoon or tomorrow morning.
Clayton was in thorough accord with all this. He expressed detailed approval of various aspects. He said that telephone conversation with Europe was very difficult and that apparently the President had not concluded to handle the conversation by teletype because of the telephone difficulties. Clayton had seen the President twice this morning already; was thoroughly dissatisfied with the present situation because it settled nothing. When I told Clayton that the muzzling for a month meant that the muzzling would come off at the end of the [Page 937] month, Clayton said this is no time for a truce on matters like this; the matter has to be settled conclusively.
Clayton knows Byrnes is not satisfied but due to the bad telephone connections he does not know what the final position is going to be. He said he would welcome our letting him know what we do, and I told him we were out of touch with the news and would appreciate him letting us know what they do. I told Clayton we want to be on the same front with them and at least know what the other is doing. Clayton is in entire accord.