Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Western Europe, Volume VII, Part 2

173. Memorandum of Conversation⁰

Paris, May 18, 1960.

PRESENT

• The President
• General de Gaulle
• Colonel Walters

The President said that in respect to this closer consultation between France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, they should be able to set up an effective mechanism without having recourse to large ponderous machinery.

General de Gaulle agreed, and said that it was important to set up something permanent that would operate effectively on a long-term basis. With the close friendship existing between the Chief of Government of the three nations at the present time, things would be easy, but they must set up something that would work on a permanent basis whoever the principals might be. General de Gaulle said, “With us it is easy; you and I are tied together by history.”

The President said that this was true and that he was confident that appropriate means to maintain this close contact could be found.

General de Gaulle said that within the next few weeks he would write both the President and Mr. Macmillan and make specific proposals in this respect.

The President said that he would also like to be able to give his ideas on this subject to General de Gaulle, and the General agreed.

General de Gaulle said that he had not seen the President to thank him for the wonderful welcome he had received in the United States.

The President asked how Madame de Gaulle was, and the General said she was very well, but she had kept on the sidelines during the Summit Conference; but he wished the President to know how much he and Madame de Gaulle had enjoyed seeing the President and Mrs. Eisenhower in Washington. If he might say so, they represented a family which was the way families ought to be and this was true of John and Barbara also.¹

The President thanked General de Gaulle for his words, and said that later this year he was going to make two major speeches. One would be concerning the family as the basic element of Western civilization, and the other would relate to the necessity of not growing soft. He would be close to the end of his term, and therefore these speeches might have a greater impact than if he had made them earlier in his term.

The President said he felt that the meeting in Paris had not been a complete failure, because he felt that the unity of the West was perhaps now stronger than ever before.²

General de Gaulle agreed with this completely.

The President then took his leave of General de Gaulle, who accompanied him to the door of the Elysée.³

Vernon A. Walters⁴
Colonel, United States Army

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 711.11–EI/5–1860. Top Secret. Drafted by Walters. This meeting was held in de Gaulle’s office at the Elysée Palace.
1. Reference is to the President’s son and his wife, John and Barbara Eisenhower.
2. Reference is to the failure of the Heads of Government Meeting, May 16, as a result of Khrushchev’s anger at the U–2 incident.
3. On May 18 and 19, Presidents Eisenhower and de Gaulle exchanged letters expressing their pleasure at the strength of their friendship and the bonds between the United States and France. Copies of these letters are in Department of State, Presidential Correspondence: Lot 66 D 204 and in Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File. Attached to de Gaulle’s letter in the Eisenhower Library, which also bears Eisenhower’s initials, is the French text.
4. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.