Office of the Historian

Eisenhower Library, Dulles papers, “Telephone Conversations”

No. 420
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, Prepared in the Department of State1

[Washington,] December 1, 1954—2:57 p.m.

Telephone Call to Allen Dulles

The Sec. said he will be asked at his press conference about the 2 civilians. Do we say they were part of the UN operation? AWD said the story is they were civilian members of the Dept. of Defense. We generally refer them to Defense as one way of handling it. The Sec. said the Pres. sent word yesterday to Wilson he should refer people [Page 978] to the Sec. AWD said that the above was the story given out at the time of their supposed death and we have stuck to it. It was done, said the Sec, before this Adm. came in in 1952. The Sec. referred to the Allen cable from New Delhi.2 AWD said it would be best to find a way to avoid going into details—although it would be hard. It is difficult to change stories now.

  1. Apparently prepared by Phyllis Bernau: the initials “pdb” appear on the source text.↩
  2. Presumably telegram 727, Document 415.↩