90. Memorandum From the Secretary of State to the President 1
SUBJECT
- Suggested Presidential Statement on Poznan Trials
Polish Communist authorities have announced that the trials of some of the persons arrested in connection with the Poznan riots of last June are to start on Thursday, September 27.
I believe that Free World concern and interest can exert some restraining influence over the Warsaw regime’s policy in this instance. An appropriate statement by you early this week could not only serve this purpose but would also provide the Polish people with timely evidence that they have not been forgotten and that the importance and significance of the Poznan riots have not been overlooked.
[Page 248]It might also be mentioned that the Assembly of Captive European Nations has just sent a telegram to you, as well as to the Vice President, Mr. Stevenson and to me in the hope of obtaining appropriate statements on the Poznan trials which could be read at the Assembly’s meeting scheduled for Thursday. Mr. Stevenson’s reply is now being prepared. I believe it would be preferable, from the point of view of domestic as well as of foreign affairs, if you could issue the enclosed statement as early as possible.2
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Dulles–Herter Series. Limited Official Use.↩
- The enclosure is not printed. On the source text, Eisenhower wrote: “approved, DE.” The statement, issued on September 26, is printed in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1956, p. 805.↩