Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, National Security Policy; Arms Control and Disarmament, Volume III

201. Memorandum of Conference With President Eisenhower⁰

Washington, February 17, 1959.

OTHERS PRESENT

• Acting Secretary Herter
• General Goodpaster

[Here follows discussion of Secretary Dulles’ illness and the possibility of a Foreign Ministers Conference.]

Mr. Herter next recalled that Mr. Macmillan is going to Moscow in the next few days. Currently the Geneva talks on the suspension of atomic tests are practically stalled. We have concluded the Soviets are not going to give in on the inspection issue. They seek veto power, and we believe we may have to break off the negotiations. The President said that there must be no technical conditions bearing on this. If there is a break, it must be on the refusal of the Soviets to provide for inspection—on their insistence upon a veto.

Mr. Herter said that with Macmillan’s trip coming up, he clearly wants to give in on this matter, because of his forthcoming elections. We must have an agreement as to what we are going to do and what procedures we are going to follow. He added that Mr. Wadsworth now believes that it will not be possible to get an agreement that the Senate would or should ratify.

The President said that voluntary disengagement will be extremely difficult to explain. He thought the text of our instructions should have a sentence to the effect that we have come to the conviction that the talks are bound to fail because of the intransigence of the Soviets in insisting on a veto in every phase of inspection; while we cannot foresee the exact conditions on which the break will probably take place, we must make clear that the one thing on which there cannot be retreat is insistence on an effective inspection system. Mr. Herter said he planned to tell Caccia just this today. The President said we should not tell anyone we are preparing to pull out. Instead we should say we believe negotiations are about to break down because of Soviet insistence on the veto.

As to the next step in this case, Mr. Herter referred to Secretary Dulles’ ideas about a fall-back position. The President recalled that this related to atmospheric tests. Mr. Herter said that if negotiations break down the plan is then to make an offer regarding atmospheric tests, but not to suggest it to Macmillan now. He repeated that Mr. Wadsworth thinks we should break off negotiations now.¹ The President asked whether recessing would not be a better formula but Mr. Herter said it is not as dramatic as breaking off and shifting the discussion to the Disarmament Committee of the United Nations. The President suggested additional language to the effect that our problem is to be completely prepared for disengagement on terms that would be understood by the whole world regardless of whether the negotiations are broken off by them or by us. The President added that without satisfactory control arrangements he would rather handle the testing problem simply by making a unilateral statement.

[Here follows discussion of President Eisenhower’s upcoming trip to Mexico.]

G.
Brigadier General, USA

0. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Eisenhower Diaries. Secret. Drafted by Goodpaster on February 18.
1. See Document 200.