711.11 EI/1–2054
Memorandum of Breakfast Conference With the President, by the Secretary of State
[Here follows discussion of the recent exchange of memoranda with the Soviet Union regarding atomic energy, the plans for the upcoming Berlin Conference, and the Austrian Treaty negotiations.]
7. We discussed the Bricker Amendment. The President asked me to look over the draft of his proposed radio talk, and said that the problem from his standpoint was to support the proposed Knowland–Ferguson draft without seeming to compromise in a way which would affect his leadership of the more liberal forces in the country. He indicated that he himself was really convinced that something like the Knowland–Ferguson draft was necessary in order to settle for all time the issue of non-supremacy of treaties over the Constitution, but that it was not easy to find a way to do this without seeming to have surrendered to reactionary elements.