United States Policy in Establishing a Program of Exchange of Information and Persons With the Soviet Bloc
92. Memorandum From the Attorney General (Brownell) to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Cutler)
Source: Department of State, S/P–NSC Files: Lot 62 D 1, Admission to the U.S. of European Soviet Bloc Nationals. Secret. Transmitted to the NSC under cover of a memorandum from Lay, dated March 22, indicating that it reported an agreement between the Departments of State and Justice pursuant to NSC Action No. 1336–b, and was to be considered by the Council at its meeting on March 24.
93. Memorandum of Discussion at the 242d Meeting of the National Security Council, Washington, March 24, 1955
Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, NSC Records. Top Secret. Item 2 was prepared by Coyne; the remaining items were prepared by Gleason, on March 25.
94. National Security Council Report
Source: Department of State, S/S–NSC Files: Lot 63 D 351, NSC 5508 Series. Confidential. NSC 5508/1 was circulated to the members of the Council under cover of a memorandum of March 26 from Lay, in which he noted the discussion and action taken at the Council’s 242d meeting on March 24 and stated that the President had approved on March 26 the statement of policy as set forth in NSC 5508/1. In addition to the statement of policy, NSC 5508/1 included a table of contents, annexes, and maps, none printed, that were identical to those included in NSC 5508.
95. Report Prepared by the National Security Council Planning Board
Source: Department of State, S/S–NSC Files: Lot 62 D 1, Planning Board Member Files. Confidential. Circulated to the members of the NSC and other officials under cover of a memorandum of March 29 from Lay, in which he stated that the report was prepared by the Planning Board with the assistance of representatives of the Departments of Justice, the Post Office, and Commerce, the U.S. Information Agency, and the White House Press Secretary. Hagerty’s diary account of the discussion of this issue at an OCB meeting on March 24 is in Eisenhower Library, Hagerty Papers.
96. Memorandum of Discussion at the 243d Meeting of the National Security Council, Washington, March 31, 1955
Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, NSC Records. Item 1 was prepared by Coyne on April 1.
98. Memorandum of a Conversation, Washington, September 20, 1955
Source: Department of State, Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 64 D 199. Confidential. Drafted by Stoessel.
99. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Merchant) to the Secretary of State
Source: Department of State, Central Files, 511.60/12–2155. Secret. Drafted by Stoessel and concurred in by Stelle, MacKnight, Howe, MacArthur, and Hoover. A note on the source text reads: “I oppose this policy in the absence of a document from Intelligence agencies which clearly asserts U.S. advantage in proposed policy— SMcLeod”. Another notation indicates that an undated letter from Cabell (Tab E), pertained to McLeod’s dissent. Cabell’s letter was not found attached to the source text.
100. Memorandum From Robert Cutler to the Secretary of State
Source: Department of State, Central Files, 511.613/2–1056.
101. Paper Prepared in the Department of State
Source: Department of State, S/P Files: Lot 62 D 1, East-West Exchanges. Confidential. This paper was transmitted to NSC Executive Secretary Lay under cover of a memorandum of June 6 from Secretary of State Dulles, in which Dulles noted that since East-West exchanges were essentially a foreign policy program, “it is my belief that primary responsibility for it should be within the Department of State although it is obviously desirable that the views of other departments should be obtained.” Dulles’ memorandum and the attached Department of State paper were then distributed to the members of the National Security Council by Lay under cover of his memorandum of June 6. Lay indicated that the Department of State paper was being referred to the NSC Planning Board for study and recommendation prior to the Council’s consideration of it.
This paper superseded a previous Department of State paper on the subject, which Murphy had submitted to Dulles on April 10. The June 6 paper was an outgrowth of, and closely resembled, a draft paper prepared by Secretary of State Dulles on May 12, which he prefaced with the remark that he had read the previous papers on the subject and had gained the impression that “we are thinking too much in terms of detail and not enough in terms of broad policy and scope for the execution of that policy.” When the June 6 paper was presented to the NSC Planning Board for its consideration on June 7, Dillon Anderson stated that there was a “complicated history” of Operations Coordinating Board consideration of the subject of East-West exchanges, that “they had been working on a paper, but the members of the OCB who had been present at a recent meeting all agreed that it was desirable not to continue the OCB assignment when it became known that the Secretary of State himself had been thinking intensively on this subject for the past few weeks and that there had been prepared a document reflecting his thinking to be circulated to the Council.” (Notes on the Planning Board Discussion, June 7; ibid.)
The Secretary of State’s draft paper was also sent to President Eisenhower, for in a memorandum of May 30 to Under Secretary of State Hoover, Eisenhower said, “I have read the Secretary’s memorandum labelled ‘East-West Exchanges.’ I agree with him. I should like to see some start made by the interested agencies toward the implementation of the ideas suggested.” (Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Dulles–Herter Series)
102. Memorandum From the Executive Secretary of the National Security Council (Lay) to the Members of the Council
Source: Department of State, S/P–NSC Files: Lot 62 D 1, East West Exchanges. Confidential. Copies were also sent to the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Special Assistant to the President for Disarmament, the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Director of Central Intelligence, the Chairman of the Interdepartmental Intelligence Conference, and the Chairman of the Interdepartmental Committee on Internal Security.
103. Memorandum of Discussion at the 289th Meeting of the National Security Council, Washington, June 28, 1956
Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, NSC Records. Top Secret; Eyes Only. Prepared by Gleason on June 29.
104. National Security Council Report
Source: Department of State, S/P–NSC Files: Lot 62 D 1, East-West Exchanges. Confidential. Circulated to the members of the Council as an enclosure to Lay’s memorandum of June 29, in which he noted the discussion and action taken at the 289th meeting of the Council on June 28; see supra.
105. Report From the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force (Twining) to the President
Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Administration Series. Secret. Twining was 1 of 28 foreign military representatives invited to the Soviet annual air show. The invitation was apparently first made through the Soviet Military Attaché in Washington on or about May 25. At the Secretary of State’s Staff meeting that day, Dulles said that he was “on the whole” in favor of Twining’s accepting the invitation, since it could be part of the U.S. offensive to reach “our hidden allies” in the Soviet Union, those forces in the Soviet Union which, he said, “are going in the same direction as ourselves.” (Department of State, Secretary’s Staff Meetings: Lot 63 D 75) President Eisenhower gave his approval to Twining’s acceptance of the invitation in a conversation with Twining and others on May 28; see Document 47. Documentation on the planning for Twining’s visit to the Soviet Union and the composition of the U.S. Delegation is ibid., Central File 711.5861.
106. Memorandum of a Conversation Between the Director of the East-West Contacts Staff (Merrill) and Adlai E. Stevenson, Washington, September 18, 1956, 9:30 a.m.
Source: Department of State, Central Files, 511.603/9–1856. Secret. Drafted by Merrill. Copies were sent to various offices and bureaus in the Department of State, to Moscow, Warsaw, Prague, Paris, London, Bucharest, Budapest, and to the White House in care of Francis Williamson.
108. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in the Soviet Union
Source: Department of State, Central Files, 511.60/11–1356. Confidential. Drafted by Toon; cleared with Freers, Blake, and Murphy; and approved for transmission by Lacy, who initialed it for Hoover. Repeated to London, Paris, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, and Bucharest.
110. Memorandum of a Conversation, Department of State, Washington, February 28, 1957
Source: Department of State, Central Files, 511.613/1–2457. Confidential. Drafted by Toon on March 7. A typewritten notation on the source text reads: “Approved in substance by Ambassador Bohlen.”
111. Memorandum From the Secretary of State to the President
Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Dulles–Herter Series. Secret.
112. Report by the Operations Coordinating Board’s Special Committee on Soviet and Related Problems
Source: Department of State, OCB Files: Lot 61 D 385, East-West Exchanges. Secret. Circulated to the members of the Board under cover of a memorandum of the same date from Staats, in which he noted that the report was to be considered by the Board at its October 16 meeting.
113. Notes on the Meeting of the Operations Coordinating Board, October 16, 1957
Source: Department of State, OCB Files: Lot 61 D 385, East-West Exchanges. Secret. The source text was taken from Richards7 memorandum of October 16 to Lacy, in which he made the following prefatory remark: “For your information there is quoted below an excerpt from my preliminary and informal notes on the OCB meeting of October 16, 1957.”
- A handwritten notation on the source text reads: “submitted to the President in meeting 5 July 56.”↩