July 20, 1955
199. Memorandum of the Conversation at the President’s Breakfast, President’s Villa, Geneva, July 20, 1955, 8:30 a.m.
Source: Eisenhower Library, White House Office, Project Clean Up. Top Secret. Drafted by Dillon Anderson. Another account, dictated by Anderson to Ann Whitman and virtually identical, is in her diary, pp. 6–11. (Ibid., Whitman File)
200. Telegram From the Secretary of State to the Department of State
Source: Department of State, Central Files, 396.1–GE/7–2055. Secret.
202. Telegram From the Delegation at the Geneva Conference to the Department of State
Source: Department of State, Central Files, 396.1–GE/7–2055. Secret; Priority. Drafted by Beam and concurred in by Phleger. Repeated to London, Paris, Moscow, and Bonn. The U.S. Delegation verbatim record, USDEL/Verb/M–2, July 20, and the records of decisions, CF/DOC/RD/5, July 20, are ibid., Conference Files: Lot 63 D 123, CF 509.
203. Memorandum of the Conversation at the President’s Luncheon, President’s Villa, Geneva, July 20, 1955, 12:30 p.m.
Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers. Top Secret; Personal and Private. Drafted by Bohlen. A summary of this memorandum was circulated as USDEL/MC/13, July 20 (Department of State, Central Files, 396.1–GE/7–2055), in the records of the U.S. Delegation and was transmitted to Washington on July 21. (Secto 59 from Geneva; ibid., 396.1–GE/7–2155) Ann Whitman recorded the following statement by the President about Zhukov after the lunch: “He is not the man I used to know—he has been well trained for this performance.” (Eisenhower Library, Whitman Diary, p. 11) For President Eisenhower’s account of the lunch, see Mandate for Change, pp. 524–525.
205. Memorandum of the Conversation at the Soviet Luncheon Between Secretary Dulles and Foreign Minister Molotov, Soviet Villa, Geneva, July 20, 1955, 1:15 p.m.
Source: Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 63 D 123, CF 516. Secret. Drafted by Dulles. Also present from the U.S. Delegation were Dillon Anderson, Hagerty, Thompson, Rockefeller, and Stassen. Another memorandum of the conversation, USDEL/MC/4, July 20, by Thompson, is the same in substance, but concludes with the following sentence: “In the course of the conversation, Mr. Molotov expressed the hope that the conversation between President Eisenhower and Marshal Zhukov would facilitate the work of the Conference.” (Ibid.)
207. Telegram From the Delegation at the Geneva Conference to the Department of State
Source: Department of State, Central Files, 396.1–GE/7–2155. Secret. Copies of the U.S. Delegation verbatim record, USDEL/Verb/4, July 20, and the record of decisions, CF/DOC/RD/6, July 21, for this session are ibid., Conference Files: Lot 63 D 123, CF 510. For Eden’s account of the Fourth Plenary, see Full Circle, pp. 336–337.
208. Memorandum for the Record of a Meeting of the Delegation at the Geneva Conference, President’s Villa, Geneva, July 20, 1955, 6 p.m.
Source: Eisenhower Library, White House Office, Project “Clean Up”. Top Secret. Drafted by Dillon Anderson on July 21. For another account of the conversation, see infra. According to Merchant, who arrived just as the meeting began, the session went as follows:
(Merchant, Recollections, pp. 37–38)“The President was in an easy chair by the fireplace with the Secretary beside him. Dillon Anderson was there and Andy Goodpaster was sitting by the door. All the others were recent arrivals from Paris: Al Gruenther, Supreme Commander for NATO in Europe, and long-time friend of the President; Harold Stassen and Nelson Rockefeller, Presidential Special Assistants; Admiral Radford, Chairman of the U.S. Chiefs of Staff; and Bob Anderson, Deputy Secretary of Defense and one of the most competent men in all the Government.
“The subject was Disarmament, which was on the Conference agenda for the next afternoon, and what the President’s statement should contain. The forthcoming ‘open skies’ proposal was discussed at length. There was no argument raised against it or its unveiling on Thursday. The question most seriously debated was whether or not it should be included in a comprehensive statement by the President on disarmament in all its phases or whether he should confine his speech to putting forward the ‘open skies’ proposal. I felt strongly that when the President spoke on the subject of disarmament at the Summit Conference the entire world would expect him to deal at some length with the whole complicated subject and hence the ‘open skies’ proposal should be handled as one section in his statement or in a separate later intervention. I’m not sure the Secretary agreed with me but in any event after considerable discussion the President decided to make an opening statement covering the general subject. He did not apparently then decide whether to include ‘open skies’ in his opening remarks or leave that for later injection into the session.”
209. Memorandum for the Record of a Meeting of the Delegation at the Geneva Conference, President’s Villa, Geneva, July 20, 1955, 6 p.m.
Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File. Drafted by Goodpaster on July 25. For two other accounts of this conversation, see supra.
210. Telegram From the Secretary of State to the Department of State
Source: Department of State, Central Files, 396.1–GE/7–2055. Top Secret; Priority.