Eisenhower Library, Dulles papers, “Telephone Conversations”
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation1
- Participants:
- Secretary Dulles
- Senator Joseph R. McCarthy
Senator McCarthy telephoned the Secretary today to tell him that his Committee on Government Operations is investigating the State Department’s filing system, but not from the communism angle. If it discloses anything along that line it will be referred to Sen. Jenner. He advised the Secretary that he would probably want to call in someone from the Archives to set up a new system. The Secretary said he knew from previous experience that once anything was filed here it was lost.
[Page 1434]The Secretary told Senator McCarthy that he wanted all the help he could get and if anything was discovered he wanted to know about it, but he wanted the thing handled tactfully.
The Senator said that he would like to see the Secretary after he returned from Europe,2 when he would have some concrete suggestions, etc. The Secretary asked if he had discovered any evidence of bad intent, and the Senator said that it was mostly wastefulness and inefficiency.
The conversation closed with the Senator repeating that he would try to see the Secretary after his return.
- Drafted by Secretary Dulles’ personal secretary, Burnita O’Day, and by Special Assistant to the Secretary of State Roderic L. O’Connor.↩
- For documentation on the tour of European capitals by Secretary of State Dulles and Mutual Security Director Harold Stassen, Jan. 31–Feb. 8, 1953, see vol. v, Part 2, pp. 1548 ff.↩