230. Editorial Note
On July 25, President Eisenhower responded to Chairman Khrushchev’s July 23 letter. Eisenhower welcomed Khrushchev’s acceptance of the proposal that if international discussions of the dangerous situation in the Middle East were to take place they should take place in the U.N. Security Council. Eisenhower added, however, that it was not yet certain that a high-level meeting to conduct such discussions was “generally desired.” He proposed an exchange of views among the permanent representatives of the members of the Security Council to determine whether a meeting was generally acceptable, and under what conditions the members and invited participants would meet. If there was general agreement on these points, a date for the meeting could be established, but Eisenhower noted that the date of July 28 proposed by the Soviet Union for the meeting would be too early for the United States.
The text of the President’s reply was handed to Soviet Ambassador Menshikov by Secretary Dulles at 1 p.m. on July 25. Dulles informed Menshikov that the text would be released to the press within the hour. (Department of State, Central Files, 396.1/7–2558) A draft of the letter, with the President’s handwritten revisions, is in the Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, Meetings with the President, and included in the microfiche supplement. The letter is also printed in [Page 394] Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1958, pages 565–566, and American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1958, pages 1001–1002.