263. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation Between Secretary of State Herter and President Eisenhower0
The President telephoned from Gettysburg to say that he had been very annoyed over the Dutch declaration,1 and wanted to discuss this with the Secretary. The President said he couldn’t go to Indonesia since he is committed to be in Japan on June 19, but he thought we should let the Dutch Ambassador know that we are very annoyed at one country [Page 507] saying what the President can do in another independent country, and that we don’t think this is in accordance with good diplomatic conduct.
The Secretary said he agreed with the President; that this was the second time Van Roijen had been out of bounds—having gotten out of bounds with Secretary Dulles a couple of years ago—and the Secretary agreed his knuckles should be rapped.
The President said when this was reported to him by John Eisenhower or General Goodpaster, they had said the Ambassador was very embarrassed but had indicated he was under very specific orders from his Government after a complete Cabinet meeting. The President said we ought to let the Dutch Government know this is now an independent country and that it is not within the bounds of decency and diplomatic usage to say this will strike at the basis of friendly relations between our two countries, which the President said was as extreme as anything he could think of.
The Secretary said the reason the Dutch are so touchy is that they are sending a warship to West New Guinea and also sending some reinforcements Out there and the Indonesians have reacted quite violently, so the Dutch are extremely touchy at the moment.
The President said it would have been one thing if the Dutch had said “please, as a friend, don’t go to Indonesia,” but the President said it was something else again for them to say this is striking at the very basis of our friendly relations. The President said if our relations are this fragile and weak, maybe we had better take a good look at the whole picture.
The Secretary said he agreed we should make this very clear to the Dutch.
The President said he had sent word to the State Department that he could hot visit Indonesia, not because of the Dutch declaration but because of the time element. The President said he thought the Secretary should tell the Dutch that while the time element alone made it impossible for the President to go to Indonesia, the President joins with the Government in thinking this is in very bad taste and uncalled for—something of this kind. The President said he has always admired the Dutch extremely and used to enjoy visiting their country, but he was not going to see them get away with saying that an incident of this kind or his doing something he has a right to do strikes at the basis of our friendly relations.
The President said he won’t leave here before the 11th or 12th of June and there may be an extra day in Anchorage. The President said if he gave two or three days in the Philippines, where he lived so long, had even 24 hours in Taipei, and one day on a cruiser or somewhere as a day of rest, that was all there was time for.
[Page 508]The Secretary said we could say the President’s domestic schedule had been arranged to take out this set period of time and could not be changed.
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Herter Papers, Telephone Conversations. No classification marking.↩
- See footnote 1, Document 261.↩