Eisenhower Library, James C. Hagerty papers
Hagerty Diary, Thursday, July 8, 1954
[Extract]
. . . . . . .
I was able also to step out on the porch with him [Eisenhower] and talk about the Geneva Conference.1 I told him that I had been thinking about it and that I thought if Dulles or Bedell Smith did not return, America would look like a little boy sulking in his tent. We would be blamed for everything and would have no opportunity or forum to express our dislike for whatever settlement the French might make in Indochina. The President said that that was a viewpoint which he wanted to consider, adding, “The trouble, Jim, with this whole damn situation is that the French will try to get us, if we are physically there with Dulles or Bedell, to approve of the terms of the settlement. We don’t think it’s going to be a good one and it certainly isn’t one we can support. Now, do we go and sit there and become a party to it, or do we express our disapproval by not sending our top men back to the Conference?” I said that I thought we should make a fight against it or at least express our disapproval of it on the spot. If we did not have Foster or Bedell there, the Russians and the Chinese, together with a reluctant and ineffective France, could make quite a to-do about it. Eden, if he goes, would probably remain more or less quiet although undoubtedly he would be forced to hail the settlement as a step toward peace. “That’s just the point,” the President added, “if we do go and if we sound off against the settlement, as we should, then are we not dividing the free world and being put in the position of splitting publicly with France and probably with the U.K. It’s a tough one to decide, but you have given me something to think over.”
- The context of this diary entry indicates that the recorded conversation occurred shortly after 5 p.m.↩