257. Telegram From Secretary of State Herter to the Embassy in Portugal0
77. Eyes Only for Merchant. Personal for the President.
“Dear Mr. President:
“I have just returned from a two-hour session with the North Atlantic Council in which Couve, Selwyn and I delivered a full report on the events of the past days.1 After our report practically every member of the Council rose to express a solidarity with us and particularly to voice in the most glowing terms their appreciation for the dignity and restraint which you showed in the face of provocation together with just the right combination of determination and conciliation. The support was unanimous and you will have seen the communiqué which the Council on its own initiative decided to issue confirming this.2
“Faithfully yours, signed: CHRIS.”
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 396.1-PA/5–1960. Confidential; Priority. Repeated to the Department of State as Cahto 11 from Paris, which is the source text. President Eisenhower was in Lisbon. Another copy of the telegram bears the notation “President saw” in Goodpaster’s writing. (Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Dulles–Herter Series)↩
- Reference is to the summit conference in Paris May 16–17, which collapsed when President Eisenhower refused to apologize to Khrushchev for U-2 overflights of the Soviet Union.↩
- For text, see Department of State Bulletin, June 6, 1960, p. 907.↩