Office of the Historian

15. Memorandum of a Conversation, Department of State, Washington, June 9, 19581

MC 7
Washington, June 9, 1958

SUBJECT

  • Interdependence: US/UK Relationship

PARTICIPANTS

  • United States
    • The President
    • The Secretary
    • Mr. Reinhardt
    • Mr. Elbrick
    • General Goodpaster
    • Mr. Dale
  • United Kingdom
    • The Prime Minister
    • Ambassador Caccia
    • Sir Norman Brook
    • Sir Patrick Dean
    • Mr. Frederick Bishop2
[Page 41]

[1 paragraph (51/2 lines of source text) not declassified]

Referring to the Lebanon situation, the Prime Minister said that on the military side our cooperation has gone well and he hoped that the liaison between our two staffs in London and with Admiral Holloway (CINCNELM) may be continued so that we may take action on short notice as required.

With respect to Southeast Asia, the Prime Minister said that four countries (Australia and New Zealand in addition to the US and UK) could make contributions. He believed that we should find out now how all four can operate as a joint force if something should break out in that area, who would command, and, how operations would be conducted.

The President suggested that the Philippines might be disposed to contribute and the Secretary said that the ROK and Nationalist Chinese would also. The Secretary noted that both have been anxious to get into the Indonesian affair but imagined that the kind of coordination which the Prime Minister mentioned should be among only the Anglo-Saxon countries.

The President stated his belief that Anglo-American cooperation should be as nearly complete as it can be made even though it cannot always be publicly admitted and the US must sometimes appear somewhat disinterested. He commended the working groups saying that they are “doing beautiful work and I want to keep them healthy and strong”.

The Secretary, returning to the subject of defense of Southeast Asia, said that we should do some political thinking before we get too far along with the military work and suggested that this subject be discussed in more detail tomorrow. The President pointed out that the main question is how to get Australia and New Zealand included in our defense planning there. The Prime Minister said that both countries are happy to have the UK open discussions on this subject on their behalf.

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File. Top Secret. Drafted by William N. Dale and cleared on June 10 by C. Burke Elbrick, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs.↩
  2. Those Officials not otherwise identified are Sir Norman Brook, Secretary of the British Cabinet, Sir Patrick Dean, Deputy Under Secretary of State in the Foreign Office; and Frederick Bishop, Principle Private Secretary to the Prime Minister.↩