Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Berlin Crisis, 1958–1959, Volume VIII

170. Memorandum of Conversation Between President Eisenhower and Secretary of State Dulles⁰

Washington, February 9, 1959, 5 p.m.

1. The Secretary discussed privately with the President his letter of February 9¹ (copy attached), and some aspects of his talks during the preceding week in Europe. Mr. Hagerty and Mr. Greene joined the President and the Secretary and there was considerable discussion whether to release the Secretary’s letter to the President at the latter’s press conference the next morning. After discussion of the pros and cons of this course and of releasing the letter right away, the President and the Secretary decided to have Mr. Hagerty release it right away. On hearing that Mr. Macomber had requested delay in the release time to permit advance notification to key members of the Congress, the President expressed his willingness to have a brief delay and instructed Mr. Hagerty to hold up the release until 6:15 p.m. The President said he would open his press conference the next morning with a statement that he accepted and approved the Secretary’s proposals in the letter.²

2. The Secretary reported fully on his talk Sunday morning with Adenauer relating the Chancellor’s concern about the nuclear deterrent, and left with the President a copy of Ambassador Whitney’s telegram # 4115,³ reporting Mr. Macmillan’s comments to the Ambassador on the Secretary’s trip.

Reverting to his talks with the Chancellor, the Secretary told the President that the Chancellor seemed agreeable to our putting forward new proposals in any meeting with the Soviets, so long as we did these one by one rather than all at once, so as to have an opportunity to judge at each step the Soviet reaction. The Secretary said the Chancellor does not want to be committed by proposals to the Soviets unless there is some indication at each step along the way that some counterpart commitment will be received.

The Secretary said that it is not certain that the Soviets will agree to meet with the West at the Foreign Minister level. He noted that there are indications that the Soviets want a meeting at the Heads of Government level; our own view of this possibility should take into account that Gromyko is not really in a position to negotiate for the Soviet Government. The Secretary speculated that events might develop so that a Heads of Government meeting could be envisaged. He and the President agreed that, insofar as the President was concerned, he might fly to Europe for the first two or three days of such a meeting, then turn over to the Secretary, with the possibility that, if the negotiations really got somewhere, the President could later return for the conclusion.

Adverting to his letter to the President, the Secretary said that one of his conclusions from his trip to London, Paris and Bonn was that there is some disarray as between the British, French, and Germans on how to deal with the Soviet threat in Germany, and even danger of head-on collisions between the Western Governments in the next few months.

The Secretary said he had the feeling that each of the Governments concerned would think of him, the Secretary, as being in a position to resolve the difficulties and avert the dangers. Hence, he thought, it would be most important that they not get the impression that the Secretary’s illness would remove his influence from the scene. The President indicated his general agreement. The Secretary thought that the phraseology of his letter adequate to cover this point, and asked that Mr. Hagerty, in responding to questions, bear it in mind. [Here follow two paragraphs on unrelated matters.]

JG

0. Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, Memoranda of Conversation with the President. Top Secret; Personal and Private. Drafted by Greene.
1. Not printed; for text of this letter, in which Dulles asked for a few weeks’ leave to recuperate and concentrate on the Berlin question, see The New York Times, February 10, 1959, pp. 1 and 3.
2. For a transcript of President Eisenhower’s press conference on February 10, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1959, pp. 168–178.
3. Telegram 4115, February 9, reported that Macmillan was very enthusiastic about Dulles’ visit and that it had been most helpful. (Department of State, Central Files, 110.11–DU/2–959)