Office of the Historian

166. Memorandum of Conference With President Eisenhower0

Paris, May 16, 1960.

OTHERS PRESENT

  • Prime Minister Macmillan, Secretary Herter, Mr. de Zulueta, General Goodpaster

The President, following his breakfast with Mr. Macmillan, asked for me to join them because of questions in connection with his handling of the U–2 incident in the Four-Power meeting scheduled later in the day. He had obtained from Mr. Kerbs a copy of brief notes prepared by the State Department but did not think this was satisfactory.1 I told him that an altogether different paper had been drafted during the night in response to his request, by State Department representatives, and had just been delivered to me. He took this paper and began discussion of it with Mr. Macmillan, with Secretary Herter who joined at about this time, and myself.2

The President said one thing was very clear in his mind and that is until we get to satellites, we will not do this kind of overflying any more. Mr. Herter said he thought it would be possible for the President to condemn all forms of espionage, thus going some distance toward meeting another of Khrushchev’s points. Mr. Macmillan said the principal point he had gained in Khrushchev’s talk with him relates to the threat—which Mr. Khrushchev says is constituted by our statement that we will continue overflights. If he correctly understood that we are not continuing overflights, he thought the clarification of this point might be of great value in the discussion with Mr. Khrushchev.

There was then detailed redrafting of the statement, with more and more White House and State Department officials joining in the discussion up to the time of departure for the Elysee Palace. This was the statement that the President delivered, with minor further additions, during the meeting.3

G.
Brigadier General, USA
  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, DDE Diaries. Secret. Drafted by Goodpaster on May 27. For two other accounts of this conference, see Macmillan, Pointing the Way, pp. 204–205, and Eisenhower, Strictly Personal, pp. 273–274.↩
  2. Not further identified.↩
  3. A copy of this paper with several notations on it by President Eisenhower is in the Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File.↩
  4. For text of the statement as given at the plenary meeting of the Heads of Government at 11 a.m., see Document 168.↩