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

302. Memorandum of Conversation⁰

October 12, 1960.

SUBJECT

• Call of King of Denmark on President Eisenhower: SAS

PARTICIPANTS

• The President
• Frederik IX, King of Denmark¹
• Danish Foreign Minister Krag
• Acting Secretary Douglas Dillon
• Danish Ambassador Count Knuth-Winterfeldt
• Ambassador Val Peterson

This second portion of the conversations with the President took about twenty-five minutes and Foreign Minister Krag and the Danish Ambassador joined the group at this point. Mr. Krag assumed the burden of the conversation at this time and raised three substantive questions with the President: First, the recent air talks held in Copenhagen to discuss mutual air traffic problems between the United States and the three Scandinavian countries. Mr. Krag pointed out that the Scandinavians took great pride in their accomplishments in building up the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) and indicated how important they felt the airline was to them. He stated that they believed in complete freedom of competition in air traffic and were greatly disturbed by the implications of the recent air talks and the attempts of certain American international carriers to curtail traffic between the United States and Scandinavia, including the so-called “sixth freedom traffic.” After further discussion, Krag indicated the Scandinavians were perfectly satisfied with the status quo, and saw no need for an agreement on capacity. Krag noted that SAS share of traffic between Europe and the U.S. had remained constant at 7% since 1953. Krag implied that SAS might be willing to accept a limitation to this percentage figure. The President pointed out the difficult situation in which the United States finds itself as between the pressures from those countries which either do or don’t place restrictions on air traffic which the United States can carry. (In other words, the protectionists and the countries who believe in unrestricted competition.) He said that we believed in free competition, and added that he certainly wanted his people in the aeronautical traffic area to deal with everyone as equitably as possible while giving full consideration to legitimate American airline interests.

The second question Mr. Krag raised was the desire of the Danes to establish a United States-Danish Committee for Greenland Projects. The purpose of this proposed committee is to assist the Danes in securing every possible consideration in bidding on Defense contracts for construction activities and materials required for the support of the American troops in Greenland. In this connection he mentioned the desire of the Danes to supply food for the American forces and also to gain a larger proportion of the shipping business. At this point Ambassador Knuth-Winterfeldt indicated how important he felt it was that an American be stationed in Copenhagen to help the Danish business community interpret Defense requirements, regulations, and contracting procedures, et cetera. (Note: The American Embassy in Copenhagen has raised some questions about this specific portion of the proposal and there was no comment on the suggestion.) At the conclusion of the discussion on this subject Mr. Dillon said the matter of the establishment of such a committee was already being negotiated and that there was no problem.

In raising the third question, Mr. Krag stated to the President that for the first time in history all the political parties in Denmark had recently agreed upon a defense plan and legislation that called for an eventual 8 per cent increase in defense expenditures by Denmark. He suggested that the agreement of all non-Communist parties was very noteworthy in Danish political history. (This is a reference to the Radical Liberal Party which has a pacifist tradition.) He then went on to say that the Danish defense program was based upon the assumption that American military assistance would be continued. He said it would be impossible for Denmark to carry out the program they now have in mind without American assistance. The President responded that while the United States was under increasing pressures from other areas of the world for military assistance and that it was America’s hope that her allies who were able to do so would accept a larger share of the cost of maintaining military forces, that nevertheless he did not anticipate there would be any radical shift in the foreseeable future in our participation with the Danes in their defense program.

The one-hour conference ended on a very pleasant and happy note and concluded with the press taking pictures of the President and the King.

0. Source: Eisenhower Library, Project Clean Up. Confidential. Drafted by Peterson. A separate memorandum covering the personal conversation between the King and the President that took place before they were joined by Foreign Minister Krag and Ambassador Knuth-Winterfeldt is ibid.
1. On September 29, 1959, Danish Foreign Minister Krag raised with Secretary of State Herter the possibility of King Frederik IX visiting the United States in connection with the opening of a Danish exhibit of the Metropolitan Museum in New York in October 1960. (Memorandum of conversation, October 29, 1959; Department of State, Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 64 D 199) On January 29, 1960, Herter recommended to the President that he invite the King to pay a State visit to the United States in October. (Memorandum for the President; Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File) Following the visit with the President, King Frederik went to New York to open the exhibit.