396.1 GE/7–1554: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the United States Delegation1
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Tosec 544. For Ambassador Johnson from Secretary. Please deliver following message from Secretary to Mendes-France.
“My dear Mr. President: Ambassador Johnson has just transmitted to me your kind message.2 I share your feeling that our meeting was well worthwhile. Certainly from my standpoint I feel a sense of respect and admiration for the forthright position which you have taken on the vital issues that confront us. Uncertainty is the worst plague and you have done much to dissipate it.
[Page 1382]I am glad to tell you that General Bedell Smith will be able to leave tomorrow and he plans to get away sometime tomorrow afternoon arriving in Geneva around Saturday noon.
Immediately upon my arrival in Washington a few hours ago I went from the airport to the White House and reported fully to the President, to General Bedell Smith and the other members of the National Security Council. The President was highly gratified with my report. General Bedell Smith will go to Geneva fully informed not only on the basis of documentation but on the basis of my personal report.
As you face fateful decisions at Geneva, you can feel that the many friends of France will be supporting you with their best wishes and with their prayers, and I am glad that we have found a way whereby, I hope without violation of our principles or serious risk of future misunderstanding, we can evidence at Geneva our moral and political support.
Mrs. Dulles asked me to thank you for the beautiful roses which you sent and which greeted her on her return.
With sincere good wishes, I am
Sincerely yours, Foster Dulles”
- Drafted by the Secretary of State.↩
- This reference to a “kind message” from Premier Mendès-France is apparently a reference to a handwritten paragraph at the end of Mendès-France‘s letter to Secretary Dulles of July 14, p. 1365. This paragraph was translated and then transmitted to Secretary Dulles on July 15 in telegram Secto 614, July 15. It read as follows: “I do not wish to end this letter without telling you how much I have appreciated during the meeting, certainly fruitful for the future of France-American relations, the way in which you have been able to join the firmness and the sureness of your political views to a broad understanding of the positions of your friends.” (396.1 GE/7–1554)↩