167. Memorandum From the Acting Secretary of State to the President1
SUBJECT
- Suggested Press Statement on Controversial Chiefs of State and Heads of Government Attending the United Nations General Assembly
The Department believes that a statement by you appealing for calm and reasonable conduct on the part of our citizens in connection with the attendance of Chiefs of State and Heads of Government at the General Assembly would be eminently useful and appropriate. We are faced, as you know, with an enormous security problem, and such [Page 328] a statement would be helpful in meeting this problem. If any attempt should be made against any of the visitors, it would be desirable that you should be on record as having appealed for courteous conduct. Otherwise we might be taken to task for not having done so.
Secretary Herter said in his press conference on Wednesday: “Naturally, we are hopeful that the attitude toward these individuals who are a very difficult security risk will comport with the usual courtesy and dignity that the American people reserve for people who are on their shores on a mission, and a legitimate mission, to an international organization.”
This, however, was given modest attention by the press, and we therefore believe that a statement by yourself is essential. A draft of a suggested statement is enclosed.2
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Dulles–Herter Series. Another copy of the memorandum indicates that Berding drafted it on September 16 and that it was cleared by Merchant, Hare, Meeker, and Wilcox. (Department of State, Central Files, 320/9–1760)↩
- Not printed. The White House, however, issued on September 17 from Camp David a statement by the President which incorporated most of the text of the Department of State draft. For text, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960–1961, p. 702.↩