374. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in the United Kingdom0
8853. Following for immediate delivery is text of personal letter from President to Prime Minister. Advise date and time delivery.
“May 24, 1960. Personal.
Dear Harold: I have just received your cable of May twentieth. I enthusiastically endorse your observation that you and I should remain as closely together as is humanly possible.
When your message reached me, I was just dictating one to you concerning two newspaper stories, disturbing to me, that came out of London, one written by a man named Cook, the other by Middleton, both Americans.1 While the stories do not deal with the same phases of post-Paris events, both do refer to some fancied rift between you and me or between our respective associates and assistants.
As you know, there is no slightest foundation for any such stories so far as Chris Herter and I are concerned. Moreover, in spite of the fact that one of the stories reports that some of the Americans who were left in Paris after the departure of Chris and myself voiced criticism of you and your efforts to bring about a Summit meeting, I cannot believe there is any foundation of fact for the story. All the people working around me and with me heard me time and again refer to the ideal association between you and myself and, indeed, between the both of us with General de Gaulle. Moreover, you and I agreed long ago that a Summit meeting was advisable, particularly after Mr. K. removed his alleged ultimatum on Berlin.
Another item refers to a conclusion that your reception of Mr. K. on Sunday afternoon was ill-advised because by doing so you indicated or created a rift between our two delegations. Of course nothing could be more ridiculous. I was anxious for you to receive the man to see whether his afternoon story would be the same as the one he gave to General de Gaulle in the morning.
Of course I know that you do not take such stories as these too seriously. I have respected your judgment and valued your friendship for more than seventeen years, and I want to assure you that my confidence in you is higher, if possible, then ever before.
[Page 868]After leaving Paris I spoke publicly both in Lisbon and in Washington2 and in both instances took occasion to point out that one good result of the failure of the conference was to bring the allies closer together. I referred especially to the splendid spirit that animated the three of us at all our meetings.3
With warm personal regard,
As ever, Ike.”
Observe Presidential Handling.
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File. Confidential; Niact; Presidential Handling. Drafted in the White House and approved by Calhoun.↩
- An article by Drew Middleton, “Macmillan’s Summit Role,” appeared in The New York Times, May 24, 1960. Donald Cook’s article on the same subject appeared in the New York Herald Tribune on May 23, 1960.↩
- Regarding the President’s visit to Portugal May 19–20, see Documents 288 and 289. When he returned to the United States, Eisenhower delivered a radio and television address to the nation on May 25, in which he stated in part: “The conduct of our allies was magnificent. My colleagues and friends—President de Gaulle and Prime Minister Macmillan—stood sturdily with the American delegation in spite of persistent Soviet attempts to split the Western group.” For text of the President’s address, see Department of State Bulletin, June 6, 1960, pp. 899–903.↩
- In a June 2 letter to Eisenhower, Macmillan wrote in part: “Of course I did not take the Cook–Middleton story seriously. Poor Jock Whitney was worried about it, but I wrote to him at once to say that I quite understood that it was just a journalist’s statement. But it was very good of you to send me such a generous letter and to speak so warmly. You know how much I value your friendship and I think that our sort of close feeling for each other is the kind of thing which grows stronger with the years.” (Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File)↩