Eisenhower Library, James C. Hagerty
papers
No. 474
Hagerty
Diary, Saturday, June 26, 19541
In at 8:15.
The President was in his office at 8:30 and I had a half hour
talk with him on the progress of the conference. He said that it
was awfully difficult to talk with Churchill, that he
refused to wear a hearing aid and consequently the President had
to shout at him all the time in conversation.
My own personal observations are that Churchill is
considerably physically weaker than he was when I saw him in
Bermuda which of course is due to the fact that since Bermuda he
has had two strokes. He is almost in the dotage period and gives
the appearance at least of losing connection with the
conversation that is going on in the room. However, when he
speaks he still retains the forcefulness of delivery, the
beautiful, ordered and intelligent command of the English
language although he doesn’t seem to be able to stay on a point
very long. He seems to get on one subject and repeat it many
times. An example of this is the several talks that he has
already given on the complexities of a central form of
government,
[Page 1100]
the
advantages we have here with our 48 states taking much of the
local load off our government and his thoughts on the
restoration of the heptarchy. He said this to the staff in the
President’s office on Friday; he repeated it at the
Congressional luncheon today; and he stopped me in the hall on
the second floor of the White House to give me a private speech
on the subject.…
In the afternoon while I was waiting on the second floor for the
meeting of the Big Four to break up in the President’s study,
the President came out to go to his room to get a copy of his
“declaration release.”2 He asked me if I was waiting to see
him and when I said no that I was waiting to see the Secretary
of State after the meeting broke up, he invited me to come in to
the meeting. Once again I was able to personally observe Prime
Minister’s reactions. The President brought in the declaration
and said that he and the Prime Minister had talked it over
earlier in the morning,3 but the President addressed all his
remarks to Eden and the
British Ambassador.…
. . . . . . .
One thing that we were very successful on the very first day
(although we had made no announcement of it) was on Guatemala.
The President and Dulles talked cold turkey to the Prime Minister
and Eden and told them
that we would use the veto against them if they insisted on
putting the Guatemalan question in the Security Council.
Eden had a long
talk with the President on this subject and later called the
British representative of the UN.
The result was that the American proposition to keep the
Guatemalan situation in the American States organization was
approved by the Security Council with England and France not
voting.4
Another subject discussed at the conference which has not been
given any publicity is the question of the Suez Canal.5
Churchill wants
us to agree to move in and use the Suez as a military base in
the event of war and we will probably have to do so for our own
protection, but he wants to be able to tell Egypt that we have
so agreed before he takes his troops out of that territory.
Settlement of Suez would give Churchill a reserve
arms strength of 80,000 men, 40,000 of which are combat fit and
could be sent to Malaya to strengthen to British position
there.
[Page 1101]
Attended the Congressional luncheon in time to hear Churchill make his
speech and made notes, which are attached hereto.
[Here follow Hagerty’s notes on the publication of a message from
French President Coty
and the impact of Australia and Pakistan on the British position
with respect to Southeast Asia.]
[Attachment]
Notes by the Press
Secretary to the President (Hagerty) on a Congressional Luncheon at the
White House, June 26, 1954
The President in introducing the Prime Minister said that he
was sure that no other citizen in the world could command so
much admiration and respect as did the Prime Minister. He
also said that it is something more than mere coincidence
that the Prime Minister’s mother was an American and that
that gave him a common interest in both of our two great
countries. The President said that the Prime Minister would
like to have personally met each individual at the luncheon
but that that was impossible. Instead, the President had
prevailed upon the Prime Minister to say a few words to the
gathering about the great memories that he has of the great
work he has been and is doing. The President reminded the
guests that the Prime Minister presided over a combined
Chiefs of Staff meeting here in this very room during time
of war and said that he was now asking the Prime Minister to
again take the gavel and preside over a meeting in this
room.
Churchill
The Prime Minister assured the President and the Members of
Congress that they were doing him a great honor in meeting
with him at the luncheon and that it was a great pleasure to
talk for a little while to this distinguished and powerful
gathering of men who exercise a great measure of control
over the leading country in the world. He said that he was
also pleased to have Members of the Cabinet present because
the Cabinet idea of government was growing stronger every
day. He said the Members of Congress who were here were
members of the important committees that exercise the power
of the Legislative over the Executive Branch of the
government and jokingly said that they did not have such a
system in his country. He said that in England the power of
the Legislature came during the question time in the House
of Commons which kept everybody very much up on their toes,
but he added in Britain there was nothing similar to the
Legislative Committees of the Congress who can constantly
call executive officers before them for
[Page 1102]
cross examination. He also
jokingly remarked that he had a majority of eighteen to work
with in the Parliament and that he was amazed when the
Speaker told him that his majority was only a majority of
two.
The Prime Minister said he was also impressed by the generous
payment made to the Members of Congress and added that in
his country there was some difference of view on this
subject within his own party. He said that in the long run
he was sure that legislative bodies would have a wiser,
broader and more tolerant viewpoint if their members were
not pressed or hampered by personal affairs and if their pay
were more.
The Prime Minister then said that it was more than forty
years ago when he first sat in a British Cabinet and that
during that time he had seen the problems of government
increase in complication and topics to be studied and
discussed, increased until they were now almost
indescribable. He said that he envied one thing in the
American Constitution and that was the great strength under
the American form of government which lay in the 48 states
of the union. These states carry out much of the work of
government. He said that he had always had the view that his
country ought to adopt something like that and that he
always felt that the restoration of the heptarchy would be a
very wise step. He said that he hoped Anthony Eden would think
of that in the days that are to come. He said it was also
fortunate that at this time when America was called upon to
face the greatest responsibility in the world it had a
richness of men who could fulfill duties that were not
expected and some which had not ever been experienced. It
was lucky that that was so because the problems of the day
are very grave indeed and the future of mankind seems to be
so awful.
The Prime Minister said that he was sure, however, that a way
could be found through the difficulties by the use of two
important factors: One—Time—Do not throw away time. There
are lots of things that seem impossible but it can be worked
out given time; and two—Vigilance—Eternal vigilance that is
needed to guard the freedom of the world against the
intolerable philosophy of Communism. Communism uses any
motive, sordid or violently belligerent to gain its end.
Actually, it is only another form of aristocracy or
bureaucracy seeking control of millions of people and
digging itself in. Communism is a tyranny which will be
difficult to overthrow, but let us of the free world make
sure that we meet every sacrifice to keep it from ourselves
and to keep it from being foisted, by force or ignorance,
upon the human race.
The Prime Minister then said that the gathering would
probably like to hear his viewpoint on some detailed
matters. He said that conferences of this kind were vitally
important, that meeting jaw
[Page 1103]
to jaw is better than war. He
realized how complicated the problems were and said that
each problem could not be thrashed out to the last inch. But
it was important to have consenting minds at the summit to
back up the conference table. Otherwise, the conferences may
go on forever.
He said that Anthony
Eden had demonstrated infallible patience in
dealing with the problems at Geneva and that he was glad
that Eden and my
friend, Foster
Dulles, look at problems from different
angles. That is good because when we meet in conference we
bring joint points of view together.
The Prime Minister then said it was true perhaps that America
could stand alone in the world, particularly with its
advantage in thermonuclear matters. Such a stand, however,
would be very unwise. He added that the United States, even
at the height of its present power, has not attempted to
acquire territory and that made him very proud of his blood
connections.
As to the China question, he said he would not talk about
that very much except to say that there was a great deal in
the words that Eden
used—“peaceful co-existence”. He said that the free world
could live in peaceful co-existence and that the views,
opinions and scientific powers we possess would enable us to
permit time to take its peaceful course.
The Prime Minister then said he wanted to talk about Germany.
He said he had always been a great admirer of the French and
had worked with them during their troubles in two world
wars. However, he was extremely vexed at the way the French
had dilly-dallied over EDC.
He said he had always wanted a European army, that maybe
EDC was not exactly the
way to get it, maybe a Grand Alliance or a NATO type organization was the
best way, but that EDC after
all was a French invention. He said that he could not help
be annoyed that the French had taken nearly three years in
doing absolutely nothing about EDC and had dissipated the driving force that
had led them originally to propose it. He said he believed
that the French were very much open to reproach for
permitting such a situation to develop, adding that it was
partly due of course to the peculiar character of their
Legislative Assembly. He said he was distressed that EDC had not been put into force
and that some way should be found, if EDC failed, of procuring under
NATO reasonable
measures of security. We must not let ourselves imagine that
if EDC does fail, it is
impossible to build up European security under NATO. We can’t wait forever on
this, however, and the French should know that the United
States and the United Kingdom regret their failure to bring
about EDC.
He said that in creating lines of defense for freedom there
is NATO, there could be
METO and SEATO. These could be welded
[Page 1104]
into
effective defense units and is a task which both the United
States and the United Kingdom must work at steadily. There
is no doubt that you must be strong if you care about peace.
Peace through strength is necessary.
The Prime Minister said that he was very glad to come over
here; that he had thought about it two months ago and had
comtemplated coming over to stay at the Embassy for a
discussion of exchange of information on thermonuclear
matters but that it had been [put] off from week to week.
Finally the President had invited him to come to the White
House and stay there as a guest and he wanted to say he had
never had a visit to Washington so agreeable and pleasant as
this one.
We could not have met at a better time. There is a great
underlying friendship between us, and the agreement and
unity expressed to the world by just being here and talking
frankly about our difficulties is vitally important. It will
add to our combined strength and will help maintain the
peace of the world.
The Prime Minister said that he and the President had been
talking for twelve years now about the problems of the day,
that they had got to know each other and that as far as he
was concerned, the President was one of the few people from
whom the Prime Minister derived pleasure in talking to him.
Thank God you have him at the head of your country and that
your country is at the head of the world. There is more need
for forceful and valued service to show the way to peace
with honor.
