Office of the Historian

120. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation Between Acting Secretary of State Dillon and the Representative to the United Nations (Lodge)0

September 20, 1959, 10:30 a.m.

I called Lodge back in Los Angeles and told him that I had informed the President of his talk with Gromyko.1 I further said that we saw no reason why Pittsburgh should not be dropped if Khrushchev so desired. Khrushchev could then devote Thursday2 to rest and preparation for talks with the President. Lodge said it might be helpful if Khrushchev could see the President on Thursday for an hour or so. I said I was sure this could be arranged if it seemed desirable. I also told Lodge that the President felt that in view of Lodge’s comments on certain numbers of Khrushchev’s party,3 it would be advisable to limit the Camp David talks as much as possible, i.e., to two on a side plus interpreters-Khrushchev and Gromyko and the President and Herter. The President also felt that Lodge should hold himself available for Camp David, the final decision on this to be taken when Lodge gets back to Washington and reports to the President. In closing I told Lodge we all admired the [Page 432] job he was doing under most difficult circumstances. He was most appreciative and pointed out that yesterday had been a 23-hour day.

C. Douglas Dillon4
  1. Source: Department of State, Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 64 D 199. Confidential. Drafted by Dillon who was in Washington.↩
  2. No record of Lodge’s telephone call to Dillon has been found. Regarding Lodge’s talk with Gromyko, see Document 119.↩
  3. September 24.↩
  4. Not further identified.↩
  5. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩