Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Western Europe and Canada, Volume VI, Part 1

Conference files, lot 60 D 627, CF 339

No. 461
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Counselor of the Department of State (MacArthur) ¹

top secret

Washington , June 23, 1954.

At a meeting at the White House this morning between the President and the Secretary, the following arrangements relating to the Churchill visit were agreed:

[Here follow parts 1 and 2 in which MacArthur recorded the discussion of plans to meet Prime Minister Churchill, the press, a communiqué for the meetings, contacts with Congress, possible invitations to the Foreign Ministers of Australia and Pakistan, and the organization and schedule for the sessions.]

3. Substantive briefing

A. EDC . The Secretary outlined to the President fears and apprehensions among EDC proponents in France and elsewhere in Europe over the present UK position to the effect that EDC is probably dead and that full membership in NATO for Germany is the alternative. The President noted that while Churchill had paid lip-service to EDC at varying times, he had never been really for it. The President indicated that he would assume the offensive with Churchill on EDC and would press him very hard to support it fully.

B. Near East

i. Egypt. The Secretary outlined the situation with respect to Egypt along the lines of the position paper.²

ii. Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Secretary mentioned very briefly the situation in these two countries and indicated that it would probably be best for him, the Secretary, and Mr. Eden to have a thorough go-round on these two problems, which involved fairly detailed matters, before the President and Churchill got into them.

iii. Cyprus. The Secretary indicated that the British would probably ask us to support them with respect to Cyprus. The President indicated general familiarity with this question. He pointed out that if Cyprus were returned to Greece, the Turks would probably raise questions and vice versa, and that a maintenace of the status quo was probably the best solution at this time.

C. Withdrawal of UK forces from Korea.

General Smith indicated that Eden had told him at Geneva that Churchill might, during the Washington visit, raise the question of withdrawal of UK forces from Korea. While it was recognized that if the British wished to withdraw these forces to put them in Malaya or elsewhere, we had no very good argument to oppose such a move, since we ourselves are redeploying forces from Korea. The President indicated that he would rather have them continue their present divisional setup in Korea, withdrawing a brigade group from the divisions.

D. East-West Trade

The Secretary mentioned that Churchill might well raise the question of East-West trade. The President indicated that if this question came up, he would listen to Churchill’s presentation but he would not get involved in detailed discussions. He indicated some sympathy for the position the UK has taken with respect to East-West trade.

E. Establishment of US–UK private group to examine US and UK policy with respect to: (i) Far East; and (ii) Middle East and Africa.

The Secretary said that the problem of reconciling US and UK policies in various parts of the world was extremely difficult and that he had thought of the desirability of having a very small US–UK group of qualified private individuals making a study of from four to six months with respect to the Far East, and a separate group perhaps with respect to the Middle East and Africa, to see if they could come up with recommendations on a common policy. The President said he thought this was a good idea, and after some discussion he said he would propose to Churchill the establishment of such a Far Eastern group and Middle East–Africa group.³

1. Press Secretary Hagerty’s record of this meeting is in the James C. Hagerty papers at the Eisenhower Library. It is the same in substance as MacArthur’s and indicated that Under Secretary Smith, Merchant, and Bowie were also present.
2. Under reference here is CEV D–7/1, June 18, a one-page briefing paper that explained the current British and American positions on Egypt, stating that the United States welcomed the British decision to present new proposals on Suez. (Conference files, lot 60 D 627, CF 339) See telegram 1602 to Cairo, June 28, vol. ix, Part 2, p. 2277.
3. On June 24 a similar meeting, attended by President Eisenhower, Secretary Dulles, Under Secretary Smith, Hagerty, Robertson, MacArthur, Bowie, and Merchant, was held at the White House at 2:30 p.m. According to the records of the meeting by Merchant and Hagerty the same topics were discussed in addition to Guatemala, atomic matters, and an invitation to Australian Prime Minister Menzies to visit Washington. Merchant’s record of the meeting is in CFM files, lot M 88, box 169; Hagerty’s record is in his diary in the James C. Hagerty papers at the Eisenhower Library.