Office of the Historian

169. Memorandum of Conference With President Eisenhower0

Paris, May 16, 1960, 3 p.m.

OTHERS PRESENT

  • Messrs. Herter, Merchant, Houghton, Bohlen, Thompson, Kohler, Berding, Smith, Achilles, Gates, Irwin, Hagerty, Major Eisenhower, General Goodpaster

The President reviewed briefly the course of the morning’s meeting in which Khrushchev had been completely intransigent and insulting to the United States and had presented impossible demands. The President said that these were wholly unacceptable.

Mr. Bohlen and others suggested that the President should quickly make a full statement, on the assumption that the Soviets were going to do so.1

Mr. Hagerty suggested that in addition to this statement, Mr. Bohlen should brief the press on just what happened.2

There was discussion as to whether there were to be any further meetings, during which the consensus seemed to be that Macmillan suggested that provisionally it be planned to meet at 11 AM tomorrow; General de Gaulle entertained this suggestion without taking a position on it.

[Page 453]

The President said that the net effect of Khrushchev’s remarks pertaining to his trip to Russia was that the invitation was withdrawn. The President said that simply saved him the necessity of turning it down given the nature of the statement the Russians had made.

The President asked that a statement be prepared at once, and suggested that Mr. Bohlen take the lead in drafting it.

The President said that DeGaulle had really warmed his heart last evening when, after their discussion with Macmillan, he told the President that “no matter what happens, France as your ally will stand with you all the way.”

A.J. Goodpaster3
Brigadier General, USA
  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File. Secret. Drafted by Goodpaster. For another report on this meeting, see Eisenhower, Strictly Personal, pp. 274–275.↩
  2. For text of this statement, which was released to the press at 3:30 p.m., see Department of State Bulletin, June 6, 1960, pp. 904–905.↩
  3. For a transcript of the press briefing, which was held by Bohlen and Hagerty at 4:40 p.m., see Background Documents, pp. 47–56.↩
  4. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩