538. Memorandum for the Record by Goodpaster1
Mr. Herter met briefly with the President on February 28th. He reported to the President that Governor Potter, in the Canal Zone, had decided to fly American and Panamanian flags, crossed, on March first, and that he felt this was a helpful forward step.
Mr. Herter next said that he had received a long letter on disarmament from Selwyn Lloyd. The President read through this letter. He stated that he agrees with Lloyd on one point—that if we are to condition everything on elimination of nuclear weapons, we will never make any progress, because they could be hidden so easily as to make policing impossible. The President said he thought we should not take the position that we will not negotiate on “stage three” items until “stage two” items have been completely implemented. We can say, however, that we will not sign an agreement on stage three items until the earlier stages are completely in effect. Mr. Herter said this is exactly the problem with Defense. They do not want to discuss or negotiate on stage three items—for example, limitation on missiles, reduction in weapons and forces, etc.—until stage two is in effect. He thought it should be possible to find some kind of language that would accommodate our own and the British positions, on the basis of what the President said. The President said what he had in mind is that implementation should follow a certain order. Study of disarmament measures should desirably follow the same order, but it would be possible to start some of these studies earlier if there is a specific need—even while holding strictly to the sequence of implementation.
The President said he found it difficult to understand the thinking of Defense in this matter. I explained to him as did Secretary [Facsimile Page 2] Herter that Defense is fearful that we will start talking about stage three items and then, because of the pressure of world opinion, be unwilling to adhere to our requirement that the implementation of these be delayed until after stage two is in effect.
Brigadier General, USA
- Source: Record of discussion between Eisenhower and Herter of a letter from Lloyd. Secret. 2 pp. Eisenhower Library, White House Office Files, Records of the Office of the Staff Secretary, State Department.↩