302. Letter From President Eisenhower to Prime Minister Macmillan1
Dear Harold: For some days a continuing intention of mine to send you a note has been defeated by preoccupations of a legislative character, brought about by the fact that we approach the end of a Congressional session with a great many controversial questions under debate.
The most serious of these, from the free world viewpoint, involves our mutual aid program. Although I have brought every possible personal influence to bear, the Congress, motivated by a belief that our people are getting weary of very high taxes and convinced that most of our citizens do not understand the aims and purposes of mutual security, has consistently refused to allow the amounts needed. I hope the situation can be partially corrected in the Senate, but in any event we are going to be hard pushed this year to carry on all the activities [Page 783] which the Administration believes to be in the best interests of the free world, including ourselves.2
Meanwhile, as you will know from FOSTER’s messages, we are preoccupied by what is happening in Syria. It is encouraging that all of Syria’s neighbors, including all of the Moslem neighbors, seem fully aware of the dangers which growing Communist influence in Syria poses for them. I believe it important that this Moslem opposition be demonstrated in all appropriate forms. We expect to keep in touch with you and your people as this problem develops.
Recently I saw in a dispatch a statement by Selwyn Lloyd that certain British agencies believed we had been responsible for inducing the Germans to buy American rather the British tanks. As I have assured you previously—indeed as I assured Anthony, when he was Prime Minister, and the German Chancellor—our government did not want this business.3
Frankly I dislike the prospect of the bulk of the free world being dependent, in the event of an emergency, upon the United States as their arsenal for matériel replacement, repair and maintenance. I would far rather that the free world could develop several dependable sources for this kind of supply. Indeed, I believe that each country should, at the very least, develop its own capacity for producing ammunition and spare parts. Otherwise such universal dependence among the nonindustrial nations upon a single source will be bound to create serious, if not catastrophic difficulties, should we ever be faced with a general war. Consequently my advocacy of German purchase of Centurions was not entirely altruistic. It merely conforms to my idea of common sense in the business of free world cooperation against emergency.
I am under the impression that you enjoyed a holiday. I hope so, and I assure you that I wish that I were able to be away from my desk during these days. I now have some belief that Congress may adjourn by the end of this week, after which I would hope to spend several weeks in Newport, only an hour and a half from Washington by air.
[Page 784]I trust that you and your Lady thoroughly enjoyed your break from normal routine.
With warm personal regard,
As ever
P.S.: Just this minute I am told that six beautiful grouse have arrived as a gift from the Duke of Devonshire, sent at your direction. Not only do I thank you for thinking of me—it is a great satisfaction now to know that you have had an enjoyable holiday.
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File. Secret and Personal.↩
- Under pressure from Congress, the President had reduced his request for Mutual Security funds from $4.4 billion to $3.9 billion; Congress further reduced this sum to $3.4 billion.↩
- Chancellor Adenauer was asked by Macmillan in May to buy the British Centurion tank to demonstrate to Britons the benefits of European cooperation. Macmillan sent a copy of his request to Adenauer to the President on May 17. The President had assured Macmillan in letters of April 15 and May 24 that the U.S. Government hoped the Germans would buy Centurions and was doing nothing to encourage the purchase of American T–48s. Macmillan’s letter to Adenauer and to Eisenhower and the President’s letters are in the Eisenhower Library, Whitman File.↩
- Printed from a copy that bears these typed initials.↩