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

370. Memorandum for the Files⁰

March 29, 1960.

SUBJECT

• Exchanges with the British on Polaris and Skybolt

At the end of the meeting at the British Embassy on the morning of Monday, March 28, Secretary Herter informed Prime Minister Macmillan that the President would be prepared to discuss with him at Camp David the question of the British desire for assurances with respect to British procurement of Polaris and Skybolt (see Secretary’s memorandum to the President of March 26).¹ Apparently the Prime Minister interpreted this as an indication that he should talk very privately on this matter with the President. In any event he did so. The subject was discussed between the two without accompanying aides, following the discussion session on the afternoon of March 28, while the President and the Prime Minister were visiting the President’s farm at Gettysburg.

No record was kept of this conversation. However at about 10 p.m. on the evening of the 28th the British delegation handed us the attached “Draft Memorandum from the Prime Minister to the President” (Attachment No. 1)² which purported to summarize the agreement reached between the two Heads of Government. This did not represent our understanding of the statements the President intended to make to the Prime Minister. Consequently on the morning of March 29 Under Secretary Dillon drafted a memorandum on the subject which could be presented to the British as representing the President’s version of his understanding with the Prime Minister. After this memorandum had been reviewed and confirmed by the President and altered slightly to conform with the President’s suggestions, it was initialed by Mr. Dillon. The original and two copies (Attachment No. 2) were handed to the British Ambassador, Sir Harold Caccia, by Mr. Kohler at 10:15 a.m. with the observation that this was purely a substantive statement which would require alteration of the draft statement which the Prime Minister proposed to make in Parliament on the subject before April 13. Later in the morning Ambassador Caccia handed us a new draft memorandum which represented only a slight revision of the first draft and did not seem to meet the careful distinctions made in the President’s memorandum for the Prime Minister (Attachment No. 3). Consequently the second British draft was carefully reviewed with Ambassador Caccia by Messrs. Dillon and Kohler and the shortcomings from the US point of view were carefully pointed out. Finally about 1:30 p.m. on March 29 Ambassador Caccia produced a new memorandum initialed by the Prime Minister which seemed after review by the President, the Secretary of State (who had then arrived at Camp David), Mr. Dillon and myself to conform satisfactorily with the US memorandum. The original is attached (Attachment 4) and the exchange was regarded as satisfactorily accomplished.

It was understood with the British that at the time of the Prime Minister’s announcement in London a suitable confirmatory public statement would have to be made in Washington.

Final versions of US and British statements contained in Department’s telegram to Paris Topol 1950, March 29.³

Attachments listed above are in single copy and attached only to original of this memorandum.

0. Source: Eisenhower Library, Staff Secretary Records, International Series. Top Secret. Drafted by Kohler.
1. Presumably Document 369.
2. None of the attachments was found with the source text. A copy of this draft memorandum from the Prime Minister to the President, bearing Macmillan’s initials, is in the Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File. A handwritten notation by General Goodpaster on the draft reads: “29 Mar 60. President has seen. G.”
3. For the final versions of the U.S. and British statements,, see Document 371.