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

200. Memorandum of Conference With President Eisenhower⁰

September 27, 1960, 9 a.m.

OTHERS PRESENT

• Prime Minister Macmillan¹
• Secretary Herter, Lord Home, Mr. de Zulueta, General Goodpaster

At 9 AM, after the President and Prime Minister Macmillan had had breakfast alone, the others joined for an hour’s discussion. As we came in, the President was telling the Prime Minister that he has had in his mind the possibility of making a quick visit late in November to Great Britain for three or four days. He would plan to pay his respects to the Queen but would hope to have no social program. He would like for Mrs. Eisenhower to accompany him, although the state of health of her mother may prevent this. [3 lines of source text not declassified] This would be two or three weeks after the election, and the President thought he could usefully consult with the others on the prospects for continued collaboration under the new administration.

Regarding our questions with the French, Mr. Herter said that his tripartite talks with Lord Home and Couve de Murville² had gone quite well. [1 line of source text not declassified] Particularly on specific matters such as Laos, Berlin and similar problems their discussions had been useful.

[Here follows discussion of other topics. For a portion of the text, see Document 382.]

The President reverted to discussion about de Gaulle. He said de Gaulle has him baffled to know what we could offer that would improve our relations. When he has raised the subjects of Algeria, tripartite organization, and atomic weapons, de Gaulle simply clams up. He has had no answer from de Gaulle to his last long letter,³ and still is not clear just what de Gaulle wants. Mr. Herter said he thinks de Gaulle’s advisors are counseling him not to put his thoughts down on paper. Their reason is that this would make the situation irretrievable since de Gaulle would find it hard to back down. The Prime Minister suggested that perhaps de Gaulle does not have anything specific in mind—that he just wants to have the form of tripartite Head of Government meetings. [7 lines of source text not declassified]

Lord Home said that Couve had stressed that France does not want to break up NATO. Their question is simply how far the question of integration should be carried. [16 lines of source text not declassified]

The President said that, in an effort to think of some way of improving the situation, he has talked to some of our people about saying we are ready to let a European take over the command of NATO in Europe. This would have to be a nation with major ground forces, and that requirement reduced the choice to France or Germany. The latter is obviously unthinkable at this time, and the French do not have men of the qualification of Gruenther and Norstad. [5–1/2 lines of source text not declassified] The President observed that he had recently seen a report that the French have agreed on an air defense command, following the same terms as the British have adopted.

The President said that the great problem regarding France is Algeria. This is “a running sore.” His personal idea is that if France would give the Algerians independence, with a good treaty establishing economic relationships, this would constitute the best available solution. He said in his judgment it is no longer possible for any free nation to keep other people in a state of domination. The costs and difficulties are simply too great. The problem in Algeria of course is that there are a million French colons intermingled with Arab population. Lord Home said that the same problem must be foreseen in Rhodesia within a few short years. The Prime Minister added that, although the South Africans have been foolish in their conduct of political affairs, they have the same problem—that for three hundred years the nation has been colonized and developed by European immigrants, to which it is now home. Lord Home said that he thought it is barely possible the French might be able to move forward on Algeria if they could achieve a truce—not demanding that the rebels lay down their arms. The Prime Minister noted that the British had not waited for a truce to negotiate in Cyprus, but had started the negotiations, calling for a truce at the same time. The President said de Gaulle had stressed to him that it is not possible to conduct free elections while fighting is going on and that he had agreed with de Gaulle on this. Lord Home said that if a truce could be achieved, it might then be possible to have the election internationally observed. In fact, de Gaulle might conceivably be induced to come to the United Nations and ask the United Nations to provide observers for this purpose. Mr. Herter said he had been informed by the Tunisians that Bourguiba had offered to give Bizerte to NATO and associate Tunisia with the French community if the French would give Algeria the same status as Tunisia. He said he understands the French have rejected this.

[Here follows discussion of other topics.]

G.
Brigadier General, USA

0. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Eisenhower Diaries. Secret. Drafted by Goodpaster on September 28.
1. Macmillan was in the United States September 25–October 5 to attend the U.N. General Assembly session. For his account of this visit, see Pointing the Way, pp. 269–281.
2. See Document 199.
3. Document 197.