582. Memorandum of a Conversation Between the President and the Secretary of State, Secretary Dulles’ Room, Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, November 17, 1956, 11 a.m.1
ALSO PRESENT FOR PART OF THE MEETING
- Mr. Macomber
[Here follow President Eisenhower’s comments concerning a recent conversation with the Greek Prime Minister.]
[Here follows discussion of the most recent letter from Bulganin which concerned the Hungarian situation.]
The President told the Secretary that there were two things he specifically wished to discuss with him at this time. First he said that he had been giving a good deal of thought to what he should say publicly in the nature of a deterrent to the Russians sending “volunteers” into the Middle East. He said that he thought the best thing he could do would be to make a statement to the effect that if the Russians should do this he would immediately call a special session of Congress. The President thought this was all he needed to say. He believed the Russians knew enough of our Constitutional procedures to be able to assess the great significance of such a move. He felt it would be a strong warning without, at the same time, committing us to any particular action. The Secretary thought this would be a useful thing to do.
Secondly, the President wished to raise the question of bringing oil into the Central Northern States from Canada. Senator Wiley had called on the President and had urged that steps be taken to do this. The President asked the Secretary whether he had given it any thought. The Secretary replied that a great deal of thought had been given to it in the Department, but he personally was not familiar enough with the problem to discuss it at this time. He thought there were some technical and legal difficulties involved.
[Here follows discussion of a personnel matter.]
The Secretary then told the President that he had been thinking about what we should do about two committees—one to consider the Suez situation and one to consider the Palestine situation. The Secretary thought we should definitely go ahead with the Suez [Page 1142] Committee. He was not so certain that this was the time to go ahead with the Palestine Committee. They discussed briefly who could serve on the Palestine Committee. It was thought that Bech, Fanfani and Spaak would be good, although Fanfani might be needed for the Suez Committee.
Next followed a brief discussion of United States foreign policy in the Middle East and Far East. During this the President remarked that it was essential to hold Japan, India and the Middle East.
The President then asked the Secretary for his thinking regarding “your personnel”. At this point the undersigned left the room. (After the President had left, I asked the Secretary whether he wished to write a memorandum on this portion of the conversation. He said he did not wish to do so.)2
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, Meetings with the President. Top Secret; Personal and Private. Drafted by Macomber. The time of the meeting is from the record of the President’s Daily Appointments. (Ibid.)↩
- Later that day at 4:57 p.m., Foreign Secretary Lloyd and Ambassador Caccia visited Dulles at Walter Reed Hospital. Hoover had already joined Dulles at 4:52 p.m. (Dulles Appointment Book; Princeton University Library, Dulles Papers) Lloyd subsequently recalled that Dulles greeted them “with a kind of twinkle in his eye” and said: “Selwyn, why did you stop? Why didn’t you go through with it and get Nasser down?” (Suez 1956, A Personal Account, p. 219) No memorandum of the Dulles–Lloyd conversation has been found either in Department of State files or the Eisenhower Library.↩