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

338. Memorandum of Conversation With President Eisenhower⁰

Washington, May 28, 1959, 10:30 a.m.

PARTICIPANTS

• The President
• The Secretary of State
• U.K. Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd
• French Foreign Minister Couve de Murville
• Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko

At this conference, no one was present to take notes, but this memorandum will, I think, serve to review the highlights of the discussion. At the outset, the President thanked the three Foreign Ministers of Great Britain, France and Soviet Russia for their great courtesy and thoughtfulness in making it possible for all of us to come to Washington for the funeral. He then said that he did not want to have any substantive discussion with respect to our negotiations, but that he did want to make it quite clear that he hoped we would make sufficient progress so that a subsequent Summit Meeting would be worthwhile. He emphasized the fact that he personally was willing to go anywhere at any time to talk with anyone if such talks would advance the cause of world understanding and peace but that he felt it would be a hoax on the hopes of mankind if a Summit Meeting should be held and end up in further disagreement without some progress being made.

There were some very amusing exchanges, with Selwyn Lloyd saying that before coming into the meeting with the President we had been discussing the question of having Mr. Gromyko thrown out of the plane unless we reached substantial agreement before returning to Geneva. It turned out that Mr. Gromyko had been giving some thought to this question, and decided it was not just a procedural matter but a substantive one in which a majority vote could not be binding, and that he felt he might be justified in using a veto. To Mr. Gromyko’s delight, the President agreed with him thoroughly with respect to the use of the veto in this instance, and also suggested it might be well if our plane were to be refueled over and over again before Geneva on the understanding we would not return until agreement had been reached.

In expressing his own philosophy in respect to meeting with people and the desirability of direct contacts, the President said that from his point of view he found that people did not wear horns merely because of nationality, race or religion but because of their own innate qualities of cussedness. He went pretty far in emphasizing the desirability of people talking to each other, including the East and West Germans. At this point, Mr. Gromyko called the attention of the other Foreign Ministers to what the President had said and expressed his own full agreement.

After the conversation, I suggested to the President that perhaps Mr. Gromyko might pick up this particular point and utilize it to his own advantage and that it would be desirable for the President at luncheon, when he would have the opportunity of talking with Dr. Adenauer, to make it very clear that his remarks were in no way a reflection on the West Germans reluctance to talk to the East Germans. The President said he would do this and reminded me that he had reassured Chancellor Adenauer the previous day¹ with respect to the real firmness of our Allied relationship.

The President concluded the discussion by showing us various paintings in his room as well as an album of photographs of paintings for which he himself was responsible. The whole atmosphere was most friendly and I think Gromyko appreciated it, particularly when President Eisenhower asked Gromyko to convey a courteous message to Mr. Khrushchev, and received through Gromyko reciprocal sentiments on behalf of Mr. Khrushchev.

C.A.H.

0. Source: Eisenhower Library, Herter Papers. Secret. Prepared by Herter.
1. Chancellor Adenauer, who had attended Dulles’ funeral, met with both the President and Allen Dulles on May 27. In the meeting at 11 with the President he reiterated his concern about British weakness at Geneva and the President tried to reassure him. (Memorandum of conversation; Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, DDE Diaries; see also Eisenhower Diaries, pp. 363–364) In the dinner conversation with Dulles, Adenauer repeated his concern, but also discussed the Middle East, the German economy, and domestic German politics. (Memorandum for the President, June 2; Eisenhower Library, Whitman File)