125. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between Milton Eisenhower and the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom), September 6, 19561
SUBJECT
- Meeting of President’s Commission September 17, 18 and 19
At the direction of Mr. Holland, I placed a phone call to Dr. Eisenhower on Tuesday afternoon, September 4, but was not able to talk to him until this morning due to his absence in New York and my inability to locate him in New York.
I explained to Dr. Eisenhower that Mr. Holland had changed his mind somewhat from his earlier position that the U.S. should simply present various problems to the forthcoming meeting of the President’s Commission for the OAS, and that Mr. Holland now felt that it would be advisable for the U.S. to make known its approach to the solution of the problems which it outlines as a means of influencing some of the other governments concerned and in order to avoid, at the subsequent meeting a few months hence, the U.S. having to knock down dozens of unacceptable proposals which might flow into the vacuum left by our failure to mention the approach we plan to take.
Dr. Eisenhower agreed that it would be wise to make suggestions as to the route to be taken to solve the various problems which will be studied by the President’s Commission. He likewise proposed that we keep the list of problems down to a manageable number, perhaps four or five or six, and not uncover so many problem areas as to make the study unmanageable.
I have passed on the above views of Dr. Eisenhower to Ambassadors Dreier and Randall and to today’s ARA Staff Meeting.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 361/9–656. Confidential. Drafted by Rubottom. Dr. Eisenhower was at the State College, University Park, Pennsylvania.↩