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

348. Memorandum of Conversation⁰

MCT MC/22

June 11, 1958, 2:30 p.m.

PARTICIPANTS¹

• President Eisenhower
• Prime Minister Macmillan
• British Ambassador, Sir Harold Caccia
• Secretary Dulles

The President raised the question of possible further reduction of UK forces on the continent assigned to NATO. The Prime Minister said that he could easily enough evade their commitments [less than 1 line of source text not declassified] that he could have a crisis on Cyprus and take troops away [less than 1 line of source text not declassified]. However, they did not want to be devious. He would have a full talk with Norstad before reaching any final decision.

The Prime Minister inquired as to whether there was any change in the prospective date for the supply of operational IRBMs. The President asked General Goodpaster to check and the General reported that there was no change; that the first group was expected to be ready by the end of ’58 and the second by the middle of ’59.

I reported that it seemed likely that the amendments to the Atomic Energy Act would be enacted by the Senate by the latter part of next week and by the House during the following week, so that probably they would be in force before the first of July. The President and the Prime Minister expressed their gratification.²

The Prime Minister and the Ambassador reinforced their expressed hope of yesterday that we would help to get the Greeks and the Turks to consider sympathetically the latest proposals.³

I mentioned the “turn-down” by Nehru of the President’s package plan.

[1 paragraph (5 lines of source text) not declassified]

We talked about the possibility of organizing the free world nations opposed to Communism into an association which would have their own assembly and police force and do some of the things which it had been hoped would be done by the United Nations but where adequate organization strictly of a police force had been prevented by Soviet opposition and veto. Prime Minister Macmillan indicated a great deal of sympathy for this idea and suggested that it might be a useful topic for consultation at some subsequent meeting. He thought that it might be a good idea to have two or three knowledgeable people from our two sides try to work out a paper indicating the advantages and disadvantages of attempting such a move. The Prime Minister thought that we would have the Communist menace with us probably for several generations and that we ought to organize against it in a more permanent and adequate way.

0. Source: Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 63 D123, CF 1020. Secret. Drafted by Dulles. The meeting was held at the White House.
1. Goodpaster also attended although he is not listed among the participants.
2. An amendment to the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to provide for greater exchange of military information and material with allies, was approved by Congress on June 30, 1958, and signed into law by the President on July 2. (Public Law 85–479; 72 Stat. 276) On July 3, Dulles and Lord Hood signed an agreement permitting greater exchange of nuclear information between the two countries. For text of this agreement, see Department of State Bulletin, July 28, 1958, pp. 161–164.
3. Reference is to the British proposal for a partnership between the Greek and Turkish communities of Cyprus and also between the Governments of the United Kingdom, Greece, and Turkey to promote peace on the island.