Office of the Historian

228. Memorandum of Conversation0

Chequers, England, August 30, 1959, 9:30 a.m.
US/MC/11

PRESIDENT’S TRIP TO EUROPE

August–September 1959

PARTICIPANTS

  • U.S.
    • The President
    • The Secretary
  • U.K.
    • Prime Minister Macmillan
    • Foreign Secretary Lloyd

SUBJECT

  • Private Meeting between the President and Prime Minister Macmillan

The Prime Minister said he would like to talk about the political aspects of the nuclear tests negotiations. He stated that in spite of all the [Page 773] technical findings he felt that there were real political advantages in trying to find an agreement with the Russians which would be comprehensive and not cover atmospheric testing alone.

The President agreed with the desirability of being able to reach a comprehensive agreement, but expressed real doubts as to whether this could be done. He emphasized that, if it could not, it would still be of real importance to make a beginning with an atmospheric tests ban. There was considerable discussion of the political difficulties which the United States Government would face in trying to get a treaty ratified by the Senate unless the balance of testimony indicated that that agreement could prove an adequate deterrent against Russian cheating.

The Prime Minister pressed the advantages from the point of view of public opinion of accompanying the offer to make an agreement on atmospheric tests with the offer of a longer moratorium on underground testing. The President said the real danger of this was that it would give to the Russians what they wanted without any controls whatever and that there was ground for real suspicion that this time might well be used by the Russians in performing a number of undetectable underground shots.

The whole matter was left in a somewhat inconclusive state with the President having made no commitments with regard to any unilateral declaration on the part of the United States with regard to any type of tests beyond the moratorium already announced until the end of 1959. The Prime Minister said that he might have to make some statement about no further British tests taking place. The necessity for, and form of, such a statement were still under consideration.

  1. Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 59, Conference Files: FRC 83–0068, CF 1449. Secret; Limit Distribution. Drafted by Herter and agreed to by Lloyd. Chequers was the official country residence of the British Prime Minister. Eisenhower visited the Federal Republic of Germany, the United Kingdom, and France August 26–September 4.↩