482. Memorandum of Conference with the President1
OTHERS PRESENT
- Acting Secretary Dillon
- Mr. Charles Coolidge
- General Goodpaster
Mr. Dillon said he was there to introduce Mr. Coolidge to the President in a new capacity, that of Director of the study of Disarmament which the President had recently approved. The President expressed his gratification that Mr. Coolidge was bringing his extended experience in security affairs back to the government to lead this study.
Mr. Coolidge said his ideas on disarmament are still pretty meager. It seemed to be something that everyone is for but for which it is very hard to find specific effective things to do. He said he did not intend to establish any big task forces, but thought he would take advantage of what has already been done. His staff he expected to include four from Defense, four from State, two or three from the scientific community, one from CIA and one from AEC, at least initially. The President supported this approach, commenting that our normal experience is that these projects are over-organized, to the extent that they become bureaucratic. His thought is that the key is a few people with good ideas and imagination. Mr. Coolidge said he had talked with Dr. Kistiakowsky, Dr. Killian and Mr. Allen Dulles to get their thinking, and would certainly be searching for ideas whereever they could be found.
The President said that one of the difficulties is that it is hard to get timely response even where we see some action possibilities. He recalled that he had thought some two years ago that it would have been a good idea to discontinue atmospheric testing. The Soviets probably would not have agreed, since they have insisted on banning all types of testing, but we would have improved our [Facsimile Page 2] situation greatly without ruling out tests that were really essential. In the long run, he said he feels we cannot go beyond the ban on atmospheric testing since inspection against ground testing is too uncertain, and inspection against high altitude testing will probably be too costly. He felt that there is great value to be gained through the elimination of certain types of arms from certain areas. The virtue is that we thereby establish inspection systems, and it is from these that he expects progress in the international field to be achieved. After further discussion of the difficulties involved in the disarmament approach, Mr. Coolidge and the President agreed that the only thing to do is to stay with it and do the best we can.
[Typeset Page 1700]The President again thanked Mr. Coolidge for taking on this assignment. At this point Mr. Coolidge left the President’s office.
The President then cleared a proposed message to Prime Minister Macmillan and gave it to Mr. Dillon for final editing and dispatch. He followed this with a message to Khrushchev with the same instructions. Mr. Dillon suggested delivering the message to Macmillan through Lord Hood and the one to Khrushchev through Ambassador Menshikov here in Washington, and the President agreed.
Mr. Dillon recommended for the President’s approval the designation of Mr. Dowling as Assistant Secretary for European Affairs in the State Department. He mentioned that the international organization for the support of NATO is planning to designate a new head, and asked if the President would see any objection to Mr. Harriman’s taking that post, which is an entirely private position. The President said he did not think this was a matter which needed to be brought to him, and would therefore have no objection.
Brigadier General, USA
- Source: Disarmament study. Secret. 2 pp. Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, DDE Diaries.↩