740.5/9–1854
The Secretary of State to the President 1
[My Dear Mr. President:] I had a very friendly and useful stop in London. I first lunched privately with Churchill and Eden. The Prime Minister was in fine shape and sent you his best. He expressed his relief that the “EDC tomfoolery” was over. He said he had only supported it because you wanted it but had never had faith in it. Now we could get German armies to march by our side instead of having a “sludgy amalgam”.
Then we had meeting at Foreign Office first on Europe, then on China.
I was disappointed that Eden has not arrived at anything concrete, even in general principles. It seems that Mendes-France has been most evasive. He may be working out his own project on terms which profess to provide for sovereignty of Germany in NATO but attaching conditions unacceptable to Germany, U.S. and perhaps others. He could present these French terms at prospective London Conference and, if they are not accepted, attempt to pass blame to others. This was his Brussels Conference tactic. I find evidence of a rising tide of concern about Mendes-France’s Russian contacts. He has killed EDC at least for now and he may be out to kill German admission to NATO.
I said I would attend London Conference. Eden wants September 28. I set in motion some preliminary planning to try to smoke out Mendes-France and concert UK–US thinking before Conference opens. I am reluctant to go into a major conference where there is so little preparatory [Page 1228] work. But Eden thinks it necessary to maintain momentum and avoid vacuum. We are agreed a NATO Ministerial meeting would follow after short interval devoted to further preparation in detail.
On the China matter, we met on restricted basis.2 Eden listened with intense interest but was totally non-commital which was natural. He remarked that US action to defend Formosa was understandable and would have wide approval but that the same was not true of Quemoy and other islands near the mainland. I explained large psychological and lesser material relationship of these islands to Formosa but I fear he was not totally convinced. He will let me know shortly his views re appeal to UN.
I am spending weekend on my island and then shall go to NY for UN opening.
Faithfully yours,
- This message was sent by telegram to President Eisenhower at the Summer White House in Denver, Colo.↩
- Documentation concerning China is presented in volume xiv.↩