54. Notes of the Secretary of State’s Staff Meeting, Washington, June 25, 1956, 9:15 a.m.1
[Here follows discussion of items 1–9.]
10. Khrushchev’s Speech and Conflicts in Communist Parties—Mr. Bowie said there had been a “suspicious similarity” between statements made by western communist parties regarding Khrushchev’s speech. He thought there was something here to be exploited among the satellites.
Referring further to the speech, those present agreed that it had offered good material for use by the informational agencies. The Secretary said there should be policy guidance on what line to take. This should be carefully thought through. He added “that we have an opportunity the like of which might not occur again for many years. Now is the chance to fragmentize the wall of granite of the International Communist Party.” Mr. Henderson made two points: One, that we should not ignore the Baltic States and, another, that while Khrushchev had been jabbing at STALIN’s brutality to Communists, he had not mentioned the cruelty to the Koreans, Poles, Persians, Afghans, and many others. Mr. Murphy asked if the OCB would not do something about this problem. Mr. Phleger, insisting that we should exploit this break, asked if Khrushchev’s speech had been “circulated physically” abroad. The Secretary reiterated that it should be translated and printed in foreign languages, e.g., one-half million copies to Indonesia.
Continuing on the same subject, the Secretary said he would speak about it at his press conference on Tuesday.2 He would make the point (1) that despotism can only hold together under brutality and iron discipline and (2) this discipline was accepted only in an atmosphere of constant victories. There had been no such recent victories. Mr. Bowie asked if the President could make a speech on July 4. The Secretary said that a speech was not likely but a statement or television film might be possible.
Action: To sum up, Mr. Hoover proposed) with general concurrence, that (1) there should be a meeting before the next OCB session, with the Directors of CIA and USIA, to discuss further exploitation of this issue and (2) Mr. Beam’s committee (in OCB), [Page 118] which had been analyzing the speech, should attempt to set an official and unofficial line on exploitation.
[Here follows the remainder of these notes.]
- Source: Department of State, Secretary’s Staff Meeting: Lot 63 D 75. Secret. Drafted by Murat W. Williams. According to an attached attendance sheet, the participants at this meeting included Dulles, Hoover, Murphy, Bowie, MacArthur, Henderson, Armstrong, McCardle, and Elbrick.↩
- For text of the transcript of the Secretary’s press conference of June 27 dealing with the Khrushchev speech, see Department of State Bulletin, July 9, 1956, pp. 47–49.↩