Office of the Historian

79. Letter From the Representative at the United Nations (Lodge) to the Secretary of State1

New York, October 26, 1955.

Dear Foster: The President brought up the disarmament question when I visited him in Denver on Monday, October 24th. I had not intended to bring it up, thinking it might distress him.2 He expressed his approbation of the following plan, which I outlined to him after he had interrogated me:

1.

That in the Political and Security Committee of the General Assembly, I try to get acceptance by the USSR, UK, France and Canada of a resolution which, in addition to containing an endorsement of the President’s plan, would contain the Soviet ground inspection item which the President has approved,3 and such British and French ideas as are generally acceptable.

The President stressed that at Geneva both Eden and Faure had enthusiastically told him of their approval of his plan.

2.
That if this attempt fails, I then try to get a US–UK–France agreement, similarly conceived, possibly still containing Soviet ideas.
3.
That if this fails, and the Committee seems likely to adopt the regular routine resolution directing the Subcommittee merely to continue its studies, I offer an endorsement of the President’s plan as an amendment.

The various fall-back positions would, of course, not be divulged at all.

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If the Soviets object that the aerial inspection scheme does not cover outlying bases, our position, according to the President, should be that the US has no objection whatever to such aerial inspection but that we have no satellites, that all our arrangements with other countries are entirely voluntary and that this would be up to the countries where the bases are located to decide for themselves. He seemed quite sure that both England and France would agree to such inspection over their territory.

To carry out this plan, I must be in a position to get quick decisions from Washington. Some current bottlenecks are:

a)
An answer to the Soviet question as to whether the President’s plan covers atomic installations or not;
b)
Language relating the President’s plan to arms reduction;
c)
And the best formula for extending the President’s plan to other countries.

I talked this over with Herb4 on the telephone from Denver just after I had seen the President and he expressed general agreement with the idea.

It seems to me that getting an endorsement by the General Assembly of the President’s plan would accomplish the following:

1.
It would enable us to hold the Soviet Union to allowing aerial inspection over their country because, if they did not allow it, they would be violating a General Assembly resolution. This would put them in disrepute before the world, paving the way for various degrees of censure with the possibility of ultimately a branding by the United Nations as the troublemaker and war-monger of the world. As I do not think they want to risk such obloquy, I believe they will permit the aerial inspection.
2.
This will effectively protect the United States from a surprise attack and this alone, in my opinion, more than justifies the existence of the United Nations and would be the most magnificent proof of the excellence of the Eisenhower Administration. Even if it had never done anything else, this alone would give it a secure place in history.
3.
Such action by the General Assembly would give us a. spectacular gain in the cold war, get for us the initiative as the great leaders for peace in the world and would also win resounding and widespread support from US public opinion.

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Needless to say, when I say “President’s plan”, I mean aerial inspection with exchange of blueprints.

With warm regard,

Faithfully yours,

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.5
  1. Source: Department of State, Disarmament Files: Lot 58 D 133. Top Secret.↩
  2. The President was still recuperating from his heart attack of September 24.↩
  3. Eisenhower’s approval of ground inspection teams is contained in his letter to Bulganin, October 11; for text, see Documents on Disarmament, 1945–1959, vol. I, pp. 528–529.↩
  4. Herbert Hoover, Jr.↩
  5. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩