Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Austrian State Treaty; Summit and Foreign Ministers Meetings, 1955, Volume V

126. Letter From Prime Minister Eden to President Eisenhower¹

London, May 29, 1955.

My Dear Mr. President: Harold is sending Foster a reply to his helpful message about the Four-Power talks.² We are in entire agreement with you about the need for adequate preparation by the Western Powers. It is essential that we should all have clear ideas as to our joint attitude on the questions which will be raised.

2. The proposed programme of talks at the official level and between Foreign Secretaries seems good to me and well planned. But I also feel that we should be wise to have a talk ourselves before meeting the Russians. You have on occasion said that you might be able to visit this country again. Nothing could give greater pleasure in Britain and you would certainly receive a heartfelt welcome from everyone. Is there any possibility that you could come here before the first round of top-level discussions, perhaps in July? We could ask Faure over to join us. It would be a real help to me to talk over our general attitude and the tactics which we might adopt. Nor would it do any harm to display the unity of the West.

3. I have also been thinking about the length of time that the first round of talks should take. These are to be purely exploratory and intended to find some basis on which further discussions can go on at other levels and at such length as may be necessary. I therefore agree that, apart from practical and personal considerations, we should not allow them to be dragged out. But I am a little apprehensive of our tying ourselves too firmly and rigidly to an exact timetable. We are after all meeting to test the temperature and see what openings there are for useful discussions and an improvement in relations. In my experience it is the informal contacts which are often the more useful with the Russians. This should be especially true if, as I believe, they are—whether for internal or other reasons—more ready for serious discussion now than they have been since the war. Even so they are deeply suspicious and slow-moving animals. I hope therefore that we shall leave ourselves a day or two in hand to extend the talks should this seem desirable at the time. In any event I trust that we shall have a minimum of four to five clear days.

Yours ever,

Anthony³

1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File. Secret and Personal. Attached to the source text was a letter of transmission from Ambassador Makins to the President, dated May 29, which states that Eden had not mentioned this matter to the French.
2. Infra.
3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.