319. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the Secretary of State in New York and Department of State Officials in Washington, September 28, 1955, 12:41 p.m.1
Hoover said Allen was with him and put him on.Allen leaves NY at 6 and perhaps we could make the occasion that A. has been in his post for several months and had been trying to get to the area to talk about problems. He mentioned Athens, Beirut, and Cairo and possibly Saudi-Arabia. A. asked if the Sec. thought he should include Israel and the Sec. said he thinks so. They agreed to leave Saudi-Arabia out, and A. will do as much extra as to give a cover to the trip. A. thinks Byroade will have presented the letter. The Sec. suggested calling him and telling him to hold it and A. can take the original.2 A. leaves Pan-Am. at 6. The Sec. said he thinks he is fine to do this. The Sec. said in view of the info re Byroade we should get A. there. He is to find out re the relationship between Byroade and Nasser. The Sec. said it is impossible to have a crisis and no recourse to the head of govt. A. questioned saying something re why he is going—just say, said the Sec, to discuss etc. current matters in the area. The Sec. repeated he should get word to Byroade to hold up the letter. A. said it will be awkward to tell him we don’t want him to deliver it. The Sec. said he did not know why—it is more effective to do it by presenting the original from the Sec.
A. said Jernegan is supposed to go Monday and A. was talking with Henderson and he thinks he could spare Hare for A.’s desk. The Sec. said all right. The Sec. said A. should be gone 10 days at the most, and suggested he spend 2–3 days in Cairo and have talks with the British Amb. and get the feel of the situation.
Hoover got on. He called Radford and set the wheels in motion for Gruenther to supply a plane. H. asked if the Sec. brought the matter up with Molotov and the Sec. said they did.3Macmillan at the Sec.’s suggestion started to talk as the Sec. had done it before. He made a pretty good statement. But he does not express himself clearly.Molotov replied by saying Mr.Dulles had taken it up and as far as Molotov knows, nothing has gone to Egypt. He was very evasive.Molotov queried their having a general system of reciprocal info in this area re arms. The Sec. said this is not an academic matter to argue about reciprocal info. It is a practical situation etc. etc. He [Page 535] mentioned that it is destructive of the spirit of Geneva. He said he spoke to the Pres.4 and Sat. the Pres. was going to write first thing to Bulganin, but became ill and couldn’t.Pinay spoke up rather ineffectually.Molotov was non-committal and evasive.Hoover said he gave Byroade’s background to Allen. The Sec. said he will be leaving right after lunch and would probably be in c.4.
[Here follows discussion of events in Cyprus and United Nations consideration of the disarmament question.]
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, General Telephone Conversations. Transcribed by Bernau.↩
- Telegram 616 to Cairo, September 28, instructed Byroade not to deliver the message sent in Documents 314 and 315, “since Allen bringing original for presentation.” (Department of State, Central Files, 774.56/9–2855)↩
- See Document 317.↩
- See Document 303.↩