Eisenhower Library, James C. Hagerty papers
Hagerty Diary, Friday, July 9, 1954
[Extract]
. . . . . . .
At the Cabinet meeting Dulles gave a review of the international situation for the Cabinet and read a draft of a cable which he was going to send to Eden, declining to have either himself or Bedell Smith return to Geneva.1 The President interrupted Foster when he finished reading the cable and said that he thought probably we would have to study this question more fully before a definite decision was made. He repeated some of the arguments that I had presented to him the night before2 and told Foster that he wanted to talk to him further on this subject. A decision has not been made, but again I hope we will see our way clear to send either Dulles or Smith back to Geneva. It’s a tough spot admittedly, but I think it will be tougher if we do not go. If we are not on record to oppose the settlement when it happens, it will plague us through the fall and give the Democrats a chance to say that we sat idly by and let Indochina be sold down the river to the Communists without raising a finger or turning a hair.
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The Cabinet met at 10:10 a.m. The record of discussion of the Geneva Conference and Indochina contained in the minutes of the meeting is confined to the following: “Also discussed at length was the prospect of a Southeastern Asia grouping to maintain settlement should a satisfactory one be forthcoming from Geneva. He [Secretary Dulles] noted also the current problem of US participation in the second phase of the Geneva Conference, about which the President commented on the apparent soundness of the US position but possible adverse inference to be drawn by other nations of the world.… Sec. [Robert B.] Anderson noted the continuing need for attention to the matter of securing the evacuation from Indo-China of material furnished to the French, and Secretary Dulles and the President commented on our right to have it returned.” (Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower papers, Whitman file, “Cabinet Meetings”)
No draft cable to Eden has been identified. However, the Dulles papers at the Eisenhower Library contain a text identical in large part with a portion of telegram 85 to Paris of July 8 (p. 1795). That text bears the following handwritten notations: 1) “Read to President and Cabinet—July 9, 1954,” and 2) “Cable sent last night to Dillon.” (Eisenhower Library, Dulles papers, “Korea—Geneva 1954”)
↩- See Hagerty diary entry of July 8, supra.↩