40. Memorandum of Conversation Between President Eisenhower and Secretary of State Dulles0
Augusta, Georgia,
November 30, 1958,
noon.
Continuing the discussion on the budget and its bearing on our Mutual Security Program,1 I said that I hoped that the burden of a defense cut would not fall entirely upon the conventional forces. I felt that there was certainly considerable overlapping and duplication in the new weapons field. The President agreed. However, he indicated that he did not favor the new atomic power carrier advocated by McElroy. He said he thought that existing carriers were good enough for the kind of task that would be required of it.
JFD
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, Meetings with the President. Secret; Personal and Private.↩
- A memorandum of a conversation beginning at 11:30 a.m. states that Dulles made a strong plea to the President for increased Mutual Security funding, perhaps to be funded by a national sales tax, and that the President in response stressed the need for both foreign aid and a balanced budget and indicated that further exploration of modalities was necessary. (ibid.) Dulles had with him at Augusta a November 29 memorandum from Smith, which argued that both the MSP and limited war capabilities were endangered by current budgetary constraints and suggested a national sales tax as a possible alternative. (Department of State, S/S–NSC Files: Lot 63 D 351, NSC 5810 Series) Both are in the Supplement.↩