192. Memorandum of a Conversation Between Secretary of State Dulles and Foreign Minister Martin Artajo, Madrid, November 1, 19551
Following the luncheon,2.I joined a group consisting of the Foreign Minister, the Ministers of Commerce, Agriculture, War and Air. In the course of the talk reference was made to the fact that these other Ministers had all been to the United States. I turned, laughingly to the Foreign Minister and said, “Well, you must arrange to come to visit us sometime,” and he said he would be very happy to do so, particularly now since I had made a visit to Spain.
(This remark of mine was not as casual as, I hope, it seemed. Ambassador Lodge had urged me most strongly to invite formally the Foreign Minister to come to Washington and to do so in the presence of General FRANCO. I had not thought it wise to do so in advance of studying more carefully the practicality of such a visit as I did not want to arouse hopes which might be disappointed. However, in the light of what Ambassador Lodge had said, I felt that it would be permissible to drop the remark very casually in the course of jocular conversation, where it need not be regarded as a serious invitation if, on reflection, we did not desire to give it that interpretation.)