174. Memorandum of a Conversation Between the President and the Secretary of State, Washington, December 26, 19571
(1) We spoke of the Gaither Report. I reported on my telephone conversation with Senator Johnson.2 The President said he was in favor of a sanitized version. He said, however, that this experience had proved, he thought definitively, the unwisdom of calling in outside groups. I pointed out that one of the troubles was that they seldom took a rounded view of the total situation. There were many things which were themselves good to do but where the benefit of seeking the wherewithal to do them involved conflicts with other things perhaps of more importance. We had to avoid inflation which might have serious consequences throughout the free world. We had to get money for economic warfare, and so forth. I did not feel the Gaither Committee had adequately explored such problems. The President said he was opposed to the spending of billions for shelters. He felt it would have an adverse effect in many respects. I said that these matters were, I assumed, largely a matter of temperament, and that I was temperamentally unsympathetic to such defensive measures. I felt that they colored one’s outlook in many other respects. I felt that a strong offensive capability as a deterrent was more effective in many ways.
[Here follows discussion of unrelated subjects.]
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, Meetings with the President. Secret-Personal and Private.↩
- A memorandum of
Dulles’ telephone
conversation with Senator Johnson on December 23 at 3:45 p.m., reads in part:
“He [Johnson] wishes the Sec could use his influence to make them [?] submit the secret material—the Gaither report. J said he said he would work out a plan to get the needed facts. The Sec said it is new to him. J told of his position which held temporarily but he does not think it will. J thinks the Sec should try to find some formula to answer these folks. Puncture the balloon by taking the Top Secret stuff out and say here it is and show it to the Chairman and Ranking Men. The Sec will tell the Pres this evening as J requested. J said the Sec has his complete Cooperation.” (Ibid., General Telephone Conversations)
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