297. Letter From President Eisenhower to Prime Minister Diefenbaker0
Dear John: I am today signing a Proclamation adjusting and regulating imports of crude oil and its principal products into the United States.1 The basis for this new program is a certification by the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization that such action is required in the interests of our national defense.
I wish to assure you that in the formulation of this program, every effort was made to insure that its practical effect upon imports from [Page 754] Canada would be minimized, and it is my understanding that there will be no appreciable change in the level of such imports as a result of the new program.
In view of the joint interest in hemispheric defense that we share with Canada and with the other American Republics, it is my sincere hope that in the near future the informal conversations that have already begun will result in an agreed hemispheric approach to this problem.2
With warm regard,
Sincerely,
- Source: Eisenhower Library, White House Office, Project Clean Up. No classification marking.↩
- For text of Proclamation No. 3279 governing oil imports and President Eisenhower’s statement at the time of its signing, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1959, pp. 1455–1462.↩
- Discussions with representatives of the Canadian and Venezuelan Embassies began in January but were suspended pending installation of the new Venezuelan Government in February. A report on these conversations was sent to the President by Herter on March 30. (Eisenhower Library, Herter Papers)↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩