263. Editorial Note
In a message to President Eisenhower dated February 7, Prime Minister Macmillan proposed that the agenda of their Bermuda meeting be divided into two parts: I. items upon which preliminary discussions could take place in Washington, the findings and recommendations on which he and Eisenhower could approve; II. “the big issues which we must tackle ourselves.” (Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File) Macmillan suggested, in proposals that were conveyed to the Department of State by Ambassador Caccia on February 8, that Part I include: how to use the United Nations to meet the needs of the West; attitude toward the satellites, particularly Poland; means of combating Soviet influence in Africa; prospect of a Palestine settlement; guarantees of the flow of Middle East oil through pipelines; disarmament; German reunification and European security; the Wilson–Sandys “talks”; reduction of British forces in Germany; European free trade area; and settlement of the Suez Canal problem. Part II was to include NATO and connected defense matters; British association with Europe; relations with the Soviet Union; the nature of the Soviet threat and means of countering it with reference to the Baghdad Pact, Syria, and Egypt; Anglo-American cooperation in the Middle East; Cyprus; China; and East-West trade. (Telegram 5548 to London, February 10; Department of State, Central Files, 611.41/2–1057) The United States accepted Macmillan’s proposals for the division of the agenda and added atomic energy problems and the future of British commitments abroad to Part II.
Prior to the Bermuda meeting, position papers were agreed to by both the U.S. and U.K. Governments on: policy toward the satellites, guarantees for the maintenance of the flow of Middle East oil through pipelines, the prospect of a Palestine settlement, and means of combating Communist influence in Tropical Africa. Various bureaus in the Department of State prepared briefing papers on every topic on the agenda. The agreed papers, briefing papers, material on the development of the agenda, and drafts of the final communiqué are in Department [Page 705] of State, Conference Files: Lot 62 D 181, CF 855–869. Copies of some of these papers are ibid., Central File 611.41, and Eisenhower Library, Staff Secretary Records, Bermuda Meeting.