Office of the Historian

305. Letter From President Eisenhower to Prime Minister Macmillan1

Augusta, Georgia, April 28, 1957.

Dear Harold: [Here follow the President’s comments on Macmillan’s April 15 letter (see footnote 1 below) and on unrelated subjects.]

So far as the Canal is concerned, I agree with you that there is in sight no completely satisfactory solution. From the beginning that has seemed to me to be an ill-starred affair, and I did my very best to keep it from developing as it did. But we have done everything, as we agreed at Bermuda, to obtain the best possible “interim” agreement.

If, in the Mid-East, one could completely separate the problems of the Canal from the age-old Israel-Arab dispute and deal with each of these individually, I am certain that we could reach a satisfactory arrangement in the lesser one, and make considerable progress toward improving the chronic one. To believe that such might happen soon is, [Page 575] of course, nothing but wishful thinking. In spite of this, I remain confident that we shall eventually secure a fairly satisfactory Canal agreement, if we can2 live in some patience while the constructive effort goes on. To look forward with confidence to such a result it is necessary that we improve and solidify the Western position—specifically yours and ours—in the whole Mid-East area.

[Here follow the President’s comments on unrelated subjects.]

As ever,

DE

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Eisenhower Diaries. Secret; Personal. This letter was written in reply to a letter from Macmillan, dated April 15, which reads, in part: “I feel more and more convinced that Nasser and his regime are leading that country and the whole Middle East to disaster and there will be no peace until that system falls.” (Department of State, Presidential Correspondence: Lot 66 D 182, Macmillan to Eisenhower Corresp. 1957–1958 Vol II)

    A first draft of Eisenhower’s letter bears Dulles’ handwritten revisions and a marginal notation indicating the revisions were read over the telephone to Ann Whitman at 5:25 p.m. on April 27. (Ibid.)

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  2. The following phrase, evidently typed in error, appears in the source text at this point: “live with some patience with the interim arrangement. To look forward”. The editor determined which words were extraneous by comparing the source text to the copy in the Department of State’s Presidential Correspondence file.↩