365. Record of Telephone Conversation Between Herter and John Foster Dulles1
Sec. said he gathered peaceful uses is still being batted about. H. said no not at all—President made decision this morning and McCone is very unhappy. Sec. said he thought it was a mistake to put peaceful uses in this statement. Sec. said what this public statement is is an exercise in [Typeset Page 1426] public relations because we have been slipping so badly. H. said Pres. had gotten into a jam with McCone. H. was asked to go over (WH) before press conference. Sec. said re peaceful uses it is only a matter of interpretation. Killian says in document drafted in Geneva it very carefully covers all explosions. This statm. will have to be cleared today somehow.
H. asked Sec. if he had seen two messages from Macmillan. Sec. said no and H. read one to Sec. Goodpaster has it and will show it to the Pres. Sec. said we can’t go all the way with military—if we have to H. and Sec. might as well quit. H. said Pres. is prepared to go ahead on this statm. and get full value. Sec. said he could come down to Washington for meeting. H. will call Sec. back after he talks with Pres.
H. earlier said another way the statm. might be handled would be to take calculated risk on releasing this before report is submitted to UN.
- Source: Statement on cessation of nuclear testing. No classification marking. 1 p. Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, General Telephone Conversations.↩