Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Western Europe, Volume VII, Part 2

126. Letter From President de Gaulle to President Eisenhower⁰

Paris, August 4, 1959.

Dear Mr. President: Dear General Eisenhower: Thank you for the message you sent me on August 1¹ in which you expressed your thoughts on the Geneva proceedings as well as the inferences you think should be drawn from them.

You apprised me of the invitation you have extended to Mr. Khrushchev for the purpose of enabling him to obtain a more exact picture of life as it is in the United States. You also informed me of your decision to pay a visit after that to Soviet Russia yourself. You are certainly the best judge of the possible results of this exchange of visits, and I wish you complete success. I wonder, however, whether Mr. Khrushchev is really ill-informed regarding the situation in the West and is prepared to rectify, after his trip, the judgment thereof he thinks he should give the people of his country.

I am pleased at your forthcoming visit to Paris. I have already had occasion to tell you how warmly we shall receive you here. As for me, it will personally be very agreeable to renew the ties, already of long standing, but ever alive, existing between us both and to discuss with you the problems that concern us. Such conversations will also permit us to exchange views as to the utility or the disadvantages, in principle, of a summit conference with the Chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers.

As regards the date of our meeting, I had made plans, and made known my decision to go to Algeria on August 27. If you could envisage arriving in Paris on September 2, 3, or 4, these dates would suit me perfectly. I am prepared, however, to delay my own trip if that would be convenient for you.

With respect to the plan for a meeting of the Western powers proposed by Mr. Macmillan, I think it might be desirable on the eve of a possible summit conference. However, a summit conference is not at all definite at the present time. We shall be able to discuss this during our conversations in Paris.

Accept, dear General Eisenhower, the expression of my high consideration and faithful friendship.²

C. de Gaulle³

0. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File. Secret. The source text is a Department of State translation. The French text of this letter was handed to Herter by Couve de Murville on August 5 at Geneva. Attached to the source text was the French text of this letter.
1. Document 125.
2. In his August 5 reply, Eisenhower thanked de Gaulle for his prompt reply and stated he would like to arrange his visit to suit de Gaulle’s convenience. Eisenhower said he hoped to stop in England while in Europe to see the Queen and Prince Philip, Macmillan, and Adenauer and asked de Gaulle to make the decision whether the President should visit Paris on August 27, before going to London, or on September 2, after visiting England. In his August 6 letter to Eisenhower, de Gaulle wrote he preferred to have their meeting in Paris on September 2. On August 7, the President wrote de Gaulle to confirm his arrival in Paris on September 2 and to tell him of his hope to talk with Spaak, Luns, and Segni while in Paris. Copies of these three letters are in Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File, and in Department of State, Central File 711.11–El.
3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.