Editorial Note
During consideration of the results of the Geneva Conference at the 207th NSC meeting held on July 22, Dulles alluded to potential regional groupings in Southeast Asia:
“The great problem from now on out was whether we could salvage what the Communists had ostensibly left out of their grasp in Indochina. Secretary Dulles indicated, in this respect, that the State Department had been actively carrying on negotiations with the British, who seemed now willing to go ahead to make plans for the defense of the rest of Southeast Asia despite India. Present schedules call for getting going formally on discussions of the defense grouping for Southeast Asia by the end of August.…
“Mr. Cutler inquired of Secretary Dulles as to the possibility of getting any considerable number of free Asian states, especially the Colombo powers, into the Southeast Asian regional group, so that it would not appear to be just another white man’s group. Secretary Dulles pointed out the two different aspects of the future regional grouping—a smaller one, primarily military in character and with relatively few Asian members at first, around which could perhaps [Page 652] be created a larger grouping of Asian states primarily for purposes of economic stability and growth.
“The President expressed his strong support of this general concept.” (Memorandum of discussion by Gleason, drafted July 23; Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower papers, Whitman file)
For the section from which these quotations come, see volume XIII, Part 2, page 1867.