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

174. Memorandum of a Meeting With the President, President’s Villa, Geneva, July 16, 1955, 8:30 p.m.¹

Geneva, July 16, 1955, 8:30 p.m.

OTHERS PRESENT

• Secretary Dulles
• Mr. MacArthur
• Mr. Merchant
• Mr. Anderson
• Colonel Goodpaster

In the discussion, the Secretary told the President it would be well to remind the Prime Minister and the Premier (Eden and Faure) of the conditions under which this conference had been accepted— that it would not attempt to settle matters of substance, but would be concerned with finding “approaches” by which progress toward resolution of difficult problems might be made. He thought the President might be prepared to exchange outlines of the opening speeches, but did not believe the texts of the speeches should themselves be exchanged. He indicated that it would be desirable to have a view well in mind as to setting the date for the next meeting. On this point, the President indicated that his idea would be that the purpose of a “next meeting” would be to review, and perhaps to ratify, work that had been done by the groups to which problems had been referred. It would be impractical to try to set a date for the next meeting before such progress had been evaluated.

The President said that just before he left the States, Senator George called to tell him that he liked the TV talk very much. The President had had a very cordial talk with Senator Lyndon Johnson the day of his departure, in which both saw grounds for encouragement. The President went on to say that he felt we should not write off what Bulganin has been saying, but should give him every opportunity to go forward into more concrete discussions, on the same cordial and reasonable tone.

The Secretary reported on his meeting with the NATO countries.² It had been a very good meeting, and the countries had said they would be quite satisfied to have the United States, the United Kingdom and France act as spokesmen, on the understanding that they would, of course, have full opportunity to participate in developing positions before any firm agreements were reached. The Secretary indicated there seemed to be a good deal of acceptance of the idea of inspection, and mentioned that the idea of “photographic inspection” seemed to have a great deal of promise.

A.J. Goodpaster³
Colonel CE, US Army

1. Source: Eisenhower Library, White House Office, Geneva—Notes and Observations. Drafted by Goodpaster on July 22. This conversation is also described briefly in Mandate for Change, p. 512; Merchant, Recollections, p. 20; and in John Eisenhower’s diary. (Eisenhower Library, Whitman File)
2. See the editorial note, supra.
3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.