Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Regulation of Armaments; Atomic Energy, Volume XX

44. Memorandum by the Secretary of State¹

Washington, June 29, 1955, 3 to 6 p.m..

SUBJECT

• A meeting on disarmament in my office, Wednesday, June 29, 3 to 6 p.m.

PRESENT

• Mr. Harold E. Stassen, Mr. Lewis L. Strauss, Mr. Allen W. Dulles, Mr. Charles E. Wilson, Mr. Robert Anderson, Admiral Paul Foster, and Mr. Dillon Anderson

The meeting was opened by Robert Anderson in which he presented the Defense Department’s point of view substantially as outlined in Secretary Wilson’s letter to the President, which is attached.² Anderson did deviate from the Wilson letter on two points. First, he said that he felt personally that a cautious and experimental approach to inspection in a certain specified limited field might be satisfactory. Secondly, Anderson said that the Defense position that all political questions should be settled between ourselves and the Soviets before entering into any agreements on disarmament was not as sweeping as the language in Mr. Wilson’s letter indicated. The Defense Department did not really feel that every outstanding political issue must be settled but did feel that substantial progress must be made on the major political issues before proceeding to any agreement on disarmament.

Stassen then stated his position which did not add anything new to the positions outlined in his various earlier memoranda.

Admiral Strauss was of the view that the President should reiterate his previous offer of matching deposits in nuclear material in some sort of world nuclear bank set-up.³ Admiral Strauss thought that this would be a good propaganda position for us to be in and that it would have a beneficial effect on the whole disarmament picture.

I presented my own views substantially as outlined in the attached memorandum.⁴ The upshot of the meeting was that we would try to present to Dillon Anderson prior to the Security Council meeting tomorrow a draft of a possible Council decision which would reflect the position taken in my memorandum. The final position of the Council will be attached hereto when it has been received.

JFD

1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, Disarmament. Personal and Private. Drafted by O’Connor. The source text indicates that copies were to be sent to Bowie, Murphy, MacArthur, and Wainhouse. The names of the four are bracketed, however, and a handwritten note by O’Connor in the margin reads: “The distribution—for See’s records only. Bowie read and will circulate NSC—June 30—record of decision to all interested parties and summary of next steps. RO’C”.
2. Document 42.
3. Presumably reference is to Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” address before the U.N. General Assembly on December 8, 1953. For text, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953, pp. 813–822.
4. Supra.