611.00/4–1153
No. 398
President Eisenhower
to Prime Minister Churchill1
Dear Winston: I deeply appreciate your offer to allow me to go over certain excerpts from your forthcoming book,2 and I am grateful for your expressed anxiety to avoid saying anything that could possibly hurt our relations either directly or indirectly. Although I am so pressed at the moment that I could not go over them personally, Bedell Smith, who, as you know, was my constant companion in the days of which you are now writing, would be glad to perform this service for me. His current position as our Under Secretary of State also makes him peculiarly sensitive to any possible expressions of thought that could have a jarring effect upon our mutual relations. Consequently, if you will send the excerpts to Bedell he will go over them and return them to you at the earliest possible moment.
With regard to your concern about the speech that I must give on April 16th,3 I have a considerable sympathy with your point that we must be careful to avoid anything that would make the Russians retreat into their shell, if they are, in fact, sincere in extending certain feelers for peace. Nevertheless, the time has come in this country when something must be said by me on the whole subject, and of course it cannot be a meaningless jumble of platitudes. I shall consequently soften the parts concerning Korea, and change certain other expressions so that there can be no misinterpretation of our position to be fully and completely receptive in any peace proposals, while at the same time never letting down our [Page 973] guard. I think we must all realize it is primarily our own growing and combined strength that is bringing about a change in the Russian attitude, and that if this is a sincere change we must not be lulled into complacency just as surely as we must not be belligerent or truculent. That is the attitude for which I shall strive in this talk.
As for the matter of timing, of course no one can accurately gauge the probable influence of an early statement as opposed to a later one. However, since I am obligated beyond any possibility of withdrawal to making a speech on this general subject, I suggest that you cable at once any comments that you and Anthony may wish to make after reading what I have had to say in this message. While I cannot agree in advance to be guided by all of them, I shall certainly consider them prayerfully.
With warm regard,
- Transmitted to London in telegram 6752, Apr. 11.↩
- According to the table of contents in Presidential Correspondence, lot 66 D 204, Churchill, in a message dated Apr. 9 (no copy of which has been found in Department of State files), had offered to let the President see passages from his forthcoming book.↩
- See the message from Churchill, supra.↩