Editorial Note
On July 9, 1954, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had several telephone conversations with Senator William F. Knowland of California, the Senate Majority Leader, who strongly opposed the return of the Secretary or the Under Secretary to the Geneva Conference. Knowland indicated that Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan shared his views. Secretary Dulles also talked with Senator Walter F. George of Georgia who agreed that Dulles should not return to Geneva. He feared that the proceedings would be elevated into a great international conference dominated by the Communists. Senator Bourke B. Hickenlooper of Iowa called to express his opposition to the Secretary’s return. In addition, Dulles spoke by telephone with Vice President Richard M. Nixon who advised against the upgrading of United States representation at Geneva on the grounds that the United States should not give respectability to or be a part of an arrangement it didn’t believe in. (Eisenhower Library, Dulles papers, “Telephone Conversations”)
At 9:15 a.m. the following day, June 10, Secretary Dulles met with Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, the Minority Floor Leader, who indicated, according to the Secretary’s memorandum of conversation, that he did not feel that he had sufficient factual knowledge of the question to have a solid judgment but that he had the impression that it would be better not to be represented at a high level at Geneva at that time. (Eisenhower Library, Dulles papers, “Korea-Geneva 1954”)