Office of the Historian

388. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the Secretary of State and Vice President Nixon, Washington, May 11, 1956, 11:08 a.m.1

Washington, May 11, 1956, 11:08 a.m.

The Secretary telephoned the Vice President to ask him if he would be interested in attending the Tenth Anniversary Celebration in Manila.2 The Secretary said there had been a great deal of thought given to the President’s going but this would cut in pretty closely with Nehru’s3 visit here (he arrives on July 7). For this reason, the President is not going. The Secretary asked if that date for the VP would be getting too close to August 11. The VP said he did not think that would be particularly a problem.

The VP asked the Secretary what he thought about the worth-whileness of the affair. The Secretary said he thought it very worthwhile. The President did not want to go unless some of the other Heads of Government would be present and this was doubtful because of the Commonwealth Conference4 which would be in progress concurrently with the Manila affair. The Secretary said he thought this independence celebration would be a fine forum to appeal to the Asian people and suggested following the line that he had taken—that the Philippines, having got their independence, should do more in helping others, i.e., Vietnam, etc. There was a tendency on the part of the Filipinos to be on the “gimme” side. It would be well if they would give the feeling that they were not primarily on the receiving end. They should be working actively to [Page 649] build up freedom in these areas. All of this, the Secretary stated, would have to be said very delicately, as the VP of course knew.

The Secretary said he did not want a definitive answer because he was not in a position to make a definitive request. The Vice President said he certainly would not be unsympathetic to the idea. The Secretary said this would not be unhelpful to Nixon at this particular time. The VP said the main thing he was concerned about was that it should be made clear that the trip was in the interests of the country, not just a trip out there.

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, General Telephone Conversations. Prepared in the Office of the Secretary of State.↩
  2. Tenth anniversary of Philippine independence.↩
  3. Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India.↩
  4. The British Commonwealth Prime Ministers Conference began on June 27.↩