540. Transcript of a Telephone Conversation Between President Eisenhower in Washington and Prime Minister Eden in London, November 7, 1956, 10:27 a.m.1
10:27 a.m.—Sir Anthony Eden.
President: I am sorry to keep bothering you, but I have some problems. First, are we talking submarine cable & not on the air?
(Did not hear Eden’s answer, if any.)
President: First of all, you have given us something on the military side I didn’t know. First thing we should do—I have just had a partial Cabinet meeting on this thing, & they think our timing is very, very bad, & I am calling to tell you about it. First, we have got to get quickly in some way a coordinated military intelligence view. And what I could do is to ask Gruenther to come over to see you—and he could see your military people and could find out anything …2 we could find out in a coordinated way just exactly what this thing is.
Next, although I had a landslide victory last night, we are not like you, and we have lost both Houses of Congress. Therefore I have to have the Senate and House leaders in right now. We have already issued invitation. They are to be here Friday and Saturday, and I have to be meeting with them. This is not so bad, you must remember, Anthony, because I have got to get them to back up whatever we agree to. My Congress won’t be back in session until January 6.
And next, we ourselves have not made a study on the line you and I were discussing—and I don’t want to repeat. We have to have the military in that even as seriously as we do the political side.
[Page 1046]And then, finally, I find that the boys at the UN they are trying to put the pressure on now are Egypt and Israel. [sic] They are trying to put the squeeze on them. The general opinion is that any meeting until that gets done would exacerbate the situation, and they are going up in the air about that. As I told them, I am very anxious to talk to you and Mollet about our future. But I do believe, in view of what my people say, we will have to postpone it a little bit. I am sorry. We haven’t said a word.
Eden: The only person I have told is Winthrop.3
President: I just don’t see how we could do it now with so much on our plate—we just can’t handle this at the same time. I am really sorry because, as I told you this morning, I want to talk to you.
Eden: I wouldn’t think we would do anything to harm anyone.
President: No, I know it wouldn’t harm anybody. What Egypt and Israel would draw from any announcement that we would make, might throw the fat in the UN.
Eden: We have called a cease-fire—a lot of problems arise out of that.
President: I am not talking about not meeting and talking with our friends. But I have had opposition about the timing.
Eden: What would you feel you would like on the time?
President: I will have to call you back—must have a full Cabinet meeting. I’m going out shortly to talk to Foster. Also must talk to State, Defense, ODM and others. I have had only a few of them in so far.
Eden: Will you be sending Mollet a message?
President: I think you had better call him.
Eden: He will speak in a half hour.
President: You’d better call him right away.4
Eden: Will I hear from you later tonight?
President: I will send you word later today.
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Eisenhower Diaries. Prepared in the Office of the President.↩
- Ellipsis in the source text.↩
- Reference is to Winthrop W. Aldrich.↩
- Pursuant to instructions, Tyler telephoned Prime Minister Mollet’s office in Paris at approximately 11 a.m. on November 7 and spoke with a member of his Cabinet, Emile Noel. Tyler asked Noel to convey an urgent message from President Eisenhower and Acting Secretary Hoover to Prime Minister Mollet that Eisenhower had told Eden that the proposed visit by Eden and Mollet to Washington would require some consultation by the President within the U.S. Government and that certain preparations would have to be made. Consequently the visit should be postponed for a while. Noel said that Eden had already telephoned Mollet and told him of this. Tyler told Noel that it was most important that there be no publicity and Noel agreed. (Memorandum of telephone conversation by Tyler, November 7; Department of State, Presidential Correspondence: Lot 66 D 204, The Pres and Sec. exchanges of Corres. with De Gaulle, Mollet, Gaillard 7/56–1/61)↩