Office of the Historian

181. Letter From President Eisenhower to Prime Minister Eden1

Washington, June 23, 1956.

Dear Anthony: Thank you very much for your letter of June seventh concerning Cyprus.2 Despite my present physical difficulty,3 I have studied it with much interest. I know your deep concern with this problem and it is a concern which I, too, share.

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Foster has told me of the statement which you propose to make on the Cyprus question. He has, I think, some questions which he has raised with Roger Makins. Is it wise, I wonder, for you to dilute your own authority by giving both Greece and Turkey what amounts to an indefinite veto power over any future change in the international status of Cyprus? Might not that further complicate a problem already complicated enough? Of course, they have legitimate interests which should be taken into account. But it seems to me important that the United Kingdom should retain a sufficient initiative and flexibility in its own hands to meet the changing circumstances which are bound to occur in a situation as complicated and as charged with emotion as is this one. Could you not therefore avoid giving an inflexible veto power to anybody?

I know it is much easier to put questions than to answer them. But I want you to know of my interest and our desire, as far as I properly can, to help at the right moment and in the right way to achieve some acceptable solution which will relieve NATO of the great risks which have developed around the present situation.

At last I can report that I seem steadily to regain my strength.

With warm personal regard,

As ever,

Ike E.
4
  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File. Secret.↩
  2. Document 175.↩
  3. On June 8, President Eisenhower suffered an attack of ileitis which required surgery on June 9. The President remained at Walter Reed Hospital until June 30.↩
  4. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩