Office of the Historian

Secretary’s Staff Meetings, lot 63 D 75, “January 1954”

Memorandum of Conversation, by Jeffrey C. Kitchen of the Executive Secretariat

[Extract]

secret
no distribution
Washington, January 8, 1954.
  • Subject:
  • Secretary’s Staff Meeting, 9:15 a.m., the Secretary’s office
  • Participants:
  • The Under Secretary
  • Mr. Lourie
  • Mr. Murphy
  • Mr. MacArthur
  • Mr. Cabot
  • Mr. Bowie
  • Mr. Byroade
  • Mr. Merchant
  • Mr. Phleger
  • Mr. Key
  • Mr. Morton
  • Mr. Waugh
  • Mr. Armstrong
  • Mr. Drumright
  • Mr. Nolting
  • Mr. Suydam
  • Mr. Phillips
  • Mr. Hanes
  • Mr. Kitchen

2. Bricker Amendment.

Mr. Phleger reported that there had been a meeting at the White House concerning the Bricker Amendment.1 No agreement had been reached, and there apparently was no decision as to a future course of action to resolve existing differences. Mr. Phleger said that he had been shocked by some of the positions presented by proponents of the Amendment. He thought it was bad law and, to the eyes of an amateur, bad politics. There had been many unjustified and unjustifiable statements regarding law and the effect of amending the Constitution. Mr. Phleger said that he was very concerned that with this working group, which had included, among others, the Attorney General, Senator Bricker, Senator Ferguson and Senator Wiley (the latter two favorable to our position), the President will be placed in the position of having to sponsor any compromise. If this compromise called for an amendment anything along the lines of the original Bricker proposal, he thought there would be a strong reaction from the AF of L, the CIO, and groups [Page 1828] of prominent and important people led by such persons as Paul Hoffman. Thus, he thought a very bad political situation might be created. Mr. Phleger said that the Secretary had made a most admirable and clear presentation of our position in the matter.

. . . . . . .

  1. According to President Eisenhower’s daily appointment records, an “off the record” meeting was held at the White House at 6 p.m. on Jan. 7. Attending the meeting, in addition to the President, were Secretary of State Dulles, Attorney General Brownell, Senator Bricker, Senator Ferguson, Senator Wiley, Senator Know-land, Phleger, Rankin, Charles Webb (Assistant to Senator Bricker), Dr. Francis E. Wilcox of the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Adams, Persons, and Martin. (Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower Records, “Daily Appointments”) No minutes or memorandum of discussion at this meeting has been found in Department of State or Department of Justice files or at the Eisenhower Library.↩