Office of the Historian

235. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the President and the Secretary of State, Washington, June 11, 1957, 5:37 p.m.1

Washington, June 11, 1957, 5:37 p.m.

TELEPHONE CALL TO THE PRESIDENT

The Sec said he just finished nearly 2 hours with Stassen and he appeared very humble and contrite and wants to work so it does not happen again etc. The Sec told him re Julius Holmes and if they disagree nothing is to be done until it is referred back.2 He will not put anything in writing without clearance and the Sec told him to sit down to work out an agenda before he goes back. So he will postpone his return until Thursday night.3 The Pres asked if he sees he is foolish. The Sec thinks he does. He acts that way. The Pres asked if he tried to rationalize and the Sec said yes but he cut it short. He did not kick re Holmes going. The Pres suggested letting the interested people know he is aware he acted impulsively and is watchful from now on. The Sec said he told him if things got into a substantive jam re NATO he might talk there. The Sec said we may get into trouble re 4th country business.

[Here follows discussion of the forthcoming visit of Nobusuke Kishi, Japanese Prime Minister, to Washington, June 19–21.]

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, White House Telephone Conversations. Drafted by Bernau.↩
  2. In a memorandum of conversation by Dulles, June 11, Dulles told Holmes that he wanted him to go to London to monitor the disarmament talks, particularly in relation to NATO. Dulles thought there should be “an explicit and prior understanding of the relationship” between Holmes and Stassen, including the referral of differences between the two regarding procedure to Washington for decision. (Ibid., General Memoranda of Conversation) Dulles confirmed this arrangement in a letter to Stassen, June 12. (Department of State, Central Files, 600.0012/6–1257)↩
  3. June 13.↩