Office of the Historian

457. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the President and the Secretary of State, Washington, February 18, 1960, 3:10 p.m.1

Washington, February 18, 1960, 3:10 p.m.

At the conclusion of the matter the President telephoned about,2 the Secretary said he would like to take this opportunity to thank the President for taking the time to personally go over the speech the Secretary gave today at the National Press Club.3 The President asked how it had gone, and the Secretary said he thought all right. The Secretary said most of the questions following the speech had to do with Cuba.

The President said in his press conference4 he put this sugar business as a part of the whole economic thing and tried to put it on a broad basis. The President said because the Secretary had made a previous comment to the effect that we were considering whether we should do this, some reporters are trying to imply that the President and the Secretary are not coordinated. The President said laughingly that he gets this same thing with Nixon, and the Secretary agreed the press is always trying to build up a story indicating differences which don’t exist.

The Secretary said he talked a little today about why this was put into effect in 1934. The President said he thought this preferential thing went way back into the teens. Secretary said Guantanamo went way back. The President said he had thought this was done way back because he didn’t think we could do it as late as 1934 because of the most-favored nation thing. The Secretary said it was done at the time of the depression and there were five other nations—Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico. The President said the Philippines was American then. The President said he had nearly come to the conclusion that we ought to keep collecting the differential, putting this money aside and [Page 794] then saying this money will be held in escrow until we have justice. The Secretary said that is a much favored procedure at the moment and if they can’t show us they are giving just compensation, etc., this may be the answer. The President said if we don’t make an agreement on this now we are in a fix if Castro is disposed of and a more agreeable government takes over; on the other hand, the President said if we do it but don’t have to activate it, we would be all right. The Secretary said that is why we are asking for the power in the Executive Branch even though it is a headache.

[Here follows discussion of matters unrelated to Cuba.]

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Herter Papers, Telephone Conversations. No drafting information is given on the source text.↩
  2. Not identified.↩
  3. For text of the speech, as well as a transcript of the question-and-answer period that followed, see Department of State Bulletin, March 7, 1960, pp. 354–361.↩
  4. The President’s news conference of February 17. (Public Papers of the President of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960–61, pp. 189–199)↩