Editorial Note
President Eisenhower met with French Premier Joseph Laniel and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at Bermuda December 4–8, 1953, for high-level talks on a wide range of subjects including atomic energy. Churchill voiced his continuing concern at the limited degree of cooperation on atomic matters between the United States and the United Kingdom and argued forcefully for the return to the full-scale cooperation he said was envisaged in the wartime agreements.
At the first restricted tripartite meeting of the Heads of Government on the afternoon of December 4, President Eisenhower informed Laniel and Churchill that he had been invited to make a speech before the General Assembly of the United Nations before it adjourned on approximately December 8. The President added that he would not address the United Nations “just for the sound and fury but would have a serious proposal to make.” While this proposal “was still only a draft” the President proceeded to outline his ideas for a diminution of existing atomic stockpiles through donation to the United Nations. Laniel “said he approved entirely what the President had proposed.” Churchill “said he would like to think this over before making an answer” and expressed a concern over the “great difficulty in drawing a line between atomic energy commercial information and atomic energy military information.” After further discussion, Eisenhower “concluded by saying he would like to ask those present to consider this as very secret. He had not yet even made a definite decision as to whether the talk would be given.”
For documentation on the Bermuda Conference, see volume V, Part 2, pages 1710 ff.