Eisenhower Library, Dulles papers, “Meetings with the President”
Memorandum of Conversation With the President, by the Secretary of State1
[Extract]
I expressed my concern with reference to the projected SEA Treaty on the ground that it involved committing the prestige of the United States in an area where we had little control and where the situation was by no means promising. On the other hand, I said that failure to go ahead would mark a total abandonment of the area without a struggle. I thought that to make the treaty include the area of Cambodia, Laos and Southern Vietnam was the lesser of two evils, but would involve a real risk of results which would hurt the prestige of the United States in this area. The President agreed that we should go ahead.
- Drafted by the Secretary personally.↩