199. Editorial Note
On June 29, the Policy Planning Staff completed work on PPS 1960–2, “The Future of Summitry,” which was transmitted to President Eisenhower on July 14 for consideration. This 22–page paper listed 13 possible advantages to holding summits and 11 disadvantages, before concluding that it was generally in the interest of the United States “to avoid summit meetings and pursue our objectives by other means, including negotiations at other levels. The exceptions would be where either urgency or probability of agreement were very great.”
On September 6, the President returned the paper to Secretary Herter for revisions, in particular expanding two sections on disadvantages under the headings “Doing Something” and “A Gesture in Lieu of Substance”, one section on advantages under the heading “Dangers of Direct Contact”, and eliminating section 11 of the disadvantages entitled “The Heritage of Paris.” The revised paper, dated September 15, was transmitted to the President on September 19. The memorandum of transmittal bears the following notation:
“Sec State,
“To me this seems a good summation of advantages and disadvantages, as well as a guide to future effort.
“DE”
A copy of PPS 1960–2 is in Department of State, Central Files, 396.1/7–1460; a copy of the revised paper, September 15, is in the Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Dulles–Herter Series.