Eisenhower Library, Dulles papers, “Meetings with the President”
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
[Extracts]
Memorandum of Conversation with the President
. . . . . . .
I discussed with the President our program for switching aid in Indochina directly to the Governments of the three Associated States rather than via France. The President agreed.1
. . . . . . .
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.2
- See telegram 610 to Paris, Aug. 18, p. 1957.↩
- For additional documentation on this question, see volume xii.↩