Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Western Europe and Canada, Volume VI, Part 1

CFM files, lot M 88, box 169, “Churchill–Eden Visit”

No. 467
Memorandum of a Meeting of President Eisenhower and Prime Minister Churchill at The White House, June 25, 1954, 1 p.m.¹

top secret
CEV MC–2

Washington, June 25, 1954, 1 p.m. to 2:50 p.m.

Participants:

• United States

  • The President
  • The Secretary
  • Mr. Merchant

• United Kingdom

  • The Prime Minister
  • Mr. Anthony Eden
  • Sir Harold Caccia

Subjects:

• 1. Guarantees for SEA
• 2. Agenda and Working Procedures

The above group met for about a half an hour in the President’s office before lunch and the conversation continued during lunch until approximately 2:50. For the most part the discussion was general and covered a wide range of topics without effort on the part of anyone to reach decisions or discuss serious business. Among the subjects discussed were Germany, France, Guatemala, the Hapsburg and Ottoman Empires, the Kerensky Government in Russia, African colonies, the French position in North Africa, Indochina, the Oppenheimer case, the internal problem of Communism, the Boer War, World War II, the relationship of Communist China to Russia, the EDC and NATO and the Locarno Pact.

Toward the end of the conversation in the course of the discussion of the American reaction to Mr. Eden’s speech yesterday in the House,² the President described the letter which he had received signed by a majority of the House Foreign Affairs Committee³ stating in effect that unless our position in connection with Mr. Eden’s stated views was made unmistakably clear at this conference, the entire matter of the Mutual Security Program would have to be re-examined.

The Secretary pointed out that the problem of Indochina and Southeast Asia was probably the most difficult facing the conference. Mr. Eden, who had previously explained that his purpose in resurrecting Locarno was to emphasize the unwillingness of the UK to enter any guarantee of a Geneva settlement which required unanimous action by the guarantors, stated that he would only require about twenty minutes to lay the ground work for the discussion of Southeast Asia and that he was most anxious that the Prime Minister be present at the time. It was accordingly agreed that the group would adjourn to the solarium for a continuation of the discussion.⁴

Before leaving the luncheon table the President suggested that whereas it seemed unnecessary to have any fixed agenda, it might be useful to have set down certain key words, such as Egypt, Locarno, etc., as a checklist for discussion in order to make sure that no important topic was overlooked. The President also raised the question of the possible desirability of setting up special joint study groups to report back to the two governments their findings and recommendations on various vexing problems. Finally the President proposed that any decisions or agreements in principle which might be reached during the course of the meetings over the weekend should be put down in the form of agreed minutes. The Prime Minister agreed to all the foregoing.

1. Drafted June 27. The meeting took place in the President’s office from 1 to 2:50 p.m.
2. For the text of Foreign Secretary Eden’s report to the House of Commons, June 23, on the Geneva Conference, see H.C. Debs. 5s, vol. 529, cols. 428 ff.
3. Not found in Department of State files.
4. For a record of the continuation of the discussion, see CEV MC–3, infra. According to Hagerty’s diary the meeting adjourned in order to let the press take pictures of the four principals.