157. Memorandum of a Conversation Between the President and the Secretary of State, White House, Washington, November 7, 19571
On the basis of Mr. Sprague’s confidential briefing as to the SAC reaction possibilities under certain extreme circumstances,2 I expressed to the President the view that I felt that these possibilities were so remote in practice that I doubted whether we would be justified in going to the extremes in the way of cost that alertness would require. The possibility considered was that in a time of relative tranquillity and a reduction of international tension there would be mounted a massive surprise attack against the United States and simultaneously against all our important bases.
I said I considered that such an attack without provocation involving casualties of perhaps one hundred million would be so abhorrent to all who survived in any part of the world that I did not think that even rulers would dare to accept the consequences.