125. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in France0
501. Please deliver following to de Gaulle and request on behalf of the President that the information regarding Mr. Khrushchev’s visit be held confidential until announcement is made in Washington. Confirm date and time of delivery.
“August 1
Dear Mr. President: For some time it has appeared unlikely that the Foreign Ministers would reach a sufficient measure of agreement at Geneva to justify a Summit Meeting. I think you will agree that in a [Page 239] situation where our hope for minimum progress has not yet been met a Summit Meeting would risk failure. With this in mind I have been in communication with Mr. Khrushchev about a visit to the United States.1 It seems to me that this would be a logical next step. Certainly a tour by Mr. Khrushchev through the U.S. would provide him with a better picture of our strength and way of life. It would also serve to reduce the atmosphere of crisis should the Foreign Ministers recess without progress. If I were to follow this up with a briefer visit to Moscow this might stimulate further progress at the Foreign Ministers level which could well lead to a Summit Meeting later in the fall.
I would intend in my informal talks with Mr. Khrushchev to do whatever I can to assure that he obtains a clearer understanding of American attitudes, power and resources. I do not want to overestimate the value of my conversations with, and the impact on, him of an exposure to the people and the facts of life in the U.S. Nevertheless I cannot help but believe that the effect might be considerable and that it might promote the very result at a future Summit Meeting which all of us are so eager to achieve.
I hope that the foregoing will appear to you as a sensible view. I expect that the announcement of the visit of Mr. Khrushchev to the U.S., which probably will take place in mid-September, and of my later visit to the Soviet Union will be made early next week, very likely on Monday, August third.2
I have been wanting for some time to find an occasion to come to Paris to renew my association with you and to have an exchange of views about problems important to Franco-American relations. Since a Summit Meeting now appears unlikely, at least for some time, I wondered if it would be convenient for me to come some time later this month. I imagine you will be having some ceremonies in Paris on August 25 to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Liberation. In this connection I well remember that it was on the 27th of August that you and I met in Paris.3 It occurred to me that if it would be convenient for you to receive me in Paris on the 27th we could renew our association under most auspicious circumstances.
Prime Minister Macmillan has indicated that he feels a Western Summit Meeting would be helpful prior to my meeting with Mr. Khrushchev.4 [Page 240] I would of course be glad to attend such a meeting but think it better if such a meeting were to be held that it take place after you and I have had an opportunity to talk together. With warm regard. Dwight D. Eisenhower.”
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File. Top Secret; Niact; Presidential Handling; No Distribution. Repeated niact to Geneva. Another copy of the letter is in Department of State, Central Files, 711.11–EI/8–159.↩
- Khruschev visited the United States September 15–28.↩
- For text of Eisenhower’s statement made at an August 3 news conference announcing that Khrushchev had accepted his invitation to pay an official visit to the United States in September and that he had accepted Khrushchev’s invitation to visit the Soviet Union in the fall, see Department of State Bulletin, August 24, 1959, p. 263.↩
- Eisenhower and de Gaulle met on August 27, 1944, in Paris to celebrate the liberation of France from German occupation.↩
- A copy of Macmillan’s letter to Eisenhower, June 18, in which he outlines this suggestion, is in Department of State, Presidential Correspondence: Lot 66 D 204.↩