163. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the President in Augusta, Georgia, and the Secretary of State in Washington, December 6, 1956, 4:50 p.m.1
The Sec said he had three matters to take up with the Pres. (1) Re the Pres meeting tomorrow with Wilson and the Joint Chiefs, they may bring up the Baghdad Pact. The Sec said they were anxious to have us join. The Sec said he had considerable reservations, and that Wilson had said he would not ask the Pres to make a decision in his (Sec Dulles) absence. The Sec said it was a political decision. The Sec said he had had a long talk with the Ambassadors of the four Baghdad Pact countries—a full and frank exchange. The Sec said he had asked them suppose we can’t get a ⅔ vote of Congress to join the Baghdad Pact without guaranteeing the same sort of thing to Israel, would you still want us to join? The Sec said none of the Ambassadors knew the answer to that. He said they also recognize the problem of getting Saudi Arabia in too. The Sec said he wanted the Pres to know that we are thinking actively of the problem and that he wanted to be sure the Pres knew of his own reservations about joining.
[Here follows discussion of Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, a personnel matter, and the President’s return to Washington.]
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, White House Telephone Conversations. Transcribed by Carolyn J. Proctor. A note on the source text indicates that she was able to hear only Secretary Dulles’ part of the conversation.↩