Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Foreign Economic Policy, Volume IV

15. Memorandum of Conversation Between President Eisenhower and Secretary of State Dulles ⁰

November 4, 1958, 8:15 a.m.

1. We went over the draft of the speech prepared for the President’s use in connection with the opening of the Colombo Plan Conference at Seattle.¹ We went over together a number of minor linguistic changes that the President had in mind. He indicated his approval generally of the speech. He did, however, warn that the U.S. budgetary and credit position was such that he felt he was going to have to put major emphasis next year upon economy and upon balancing the budget. Therefore, we did not want to give exaggerated hopes that there would be large increases in foreign aid. According to the President’s thinking we would go through with the increased capital for the World Bank and Monetary Fund² and with a modest increase in the Development Loan Fund, but nothing spectacular.

I took a revised draft for retyping.

2. With respect to plans, I said that unless the President thought it useful for me to be aboard the Columbine on Saturday to work further on his speech I would be inclined to come out on Sunday, giving me an extra day in Washington. The President said that was entirely agreeable with him. He expected to have the speech “frozen” by then.

3. We talked generally of the threat to our economy posed by the massive regimentation being accomplished in the Soviet Union and in Communist China. I said that as long as the people were willing to allow themselves to be used in this way, the situation was indeed ominous. The President agreed that the principal hope must be that there would be a revolt on the part of the people. Otherwise, we would face a threat that would be very difficult for us to meet in terms of our present form of government and system of society.

I pointed out that recent reports from Communist China were even more disturbing than the reports from Russia.

JFD

0. Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, White House Memoranda. Secret; Personal and Private. Drafted by Dulles.
1. For text of President Eisenhower’s address before a meeting of the Colombo Plan Consultative Committee in Seattle on November 10, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1958, pp. 839–847.
2. At the annual meetings of the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development held in New Delhi, October 6–10, the United States proposed increases in the resources of both institutions. See Documents 145 ff.