Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Foreign Economic Policy, Volume IV

264. Notes of the Legislative Leadership Meeting⁰

August 16, 1960, 8:35–10:45 a.m.¹

[Here follow a list of participants, brief opening remarks by the President, and discussion of unrelated topics.]

Mutual Security—Mr. Dirksen said he thought the Mutual Security Contingency Fund increase would be ready for Friday the 19th, but that there would probably be an added title containing a miscellaneous catch-all. Sen. Saltonstall was persuaded that the Senate would get to the mutual security program on Friday but said they did not have the authorization for the $100 million contingency fund and asked if Mr. Harlow could provide this. Senator Bridges said he hoped the President would not be disturbed if there were an amendment proposed to the Mutual Security Bill giving aid to Communist countries—that this might be proposed, not with the intent of being passed, but to see how Senators Johnson and Kennedy vote.² The President suggested talking with Sec. Dillon about this. He would be quite willing to embarrass the Democrats but did not wish at the same time to run the risk of embarrassing ourselves.

Senator Bridges said he would like to see such an amendment, making some reference to the Monroe Doctrine. The President responded that the Monroe Doctrine does not apply in the case of Cuba; it does not apply until the state in question becomes a vassal of Moscow; as long as the country is still independent, the Doctrine does not apply. Sen. Dirksen proposed consideration of the idea of adding an amendment denying military aid to Cuba. Sen. Saltonstall’s opinion was the Bridges amendment would go through if the State Department did not resist—that it was an Administration problem. The President said that we have been doing our best to break Poland away from Moscow and that we have witnessed in that country a somewhat greater freedom of expression. We do, he said, a little here and a little there, as we can—just as, if you possibly knew how, you would break up the Sino-Soviet axis. But at all events, he said, our policy is to break these various alliances apart. Sen. Bridges did not know what Senator Kennedy might do, but he seemed to be going soft on China, on Asia all the way around. Senator Bridges’ thought was that while Senator Kennedy has to vote, to be on record, he should be made to go on record. Senator Bridges thought it would be difficult for Senator Kennedy. But the State Department, he felt, was very little politically inclined. The President again urged that the whole question be taken up with Secretary Dillon.

Sen. Saltonstall inquired why it might not be desirable to have a modern interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine to fit the present circumstances. In reply, the President pointed out the problem of solidarity of the hemisphere. Our neighbors, he said, resist the unilateral nature of the Monroe Doctrine. That is what we have been trying to get at in the Caracas Declaration, the Rio Conference, and other meetings—to create the willingness to resist Communist penetration in this hemisphere, if with outside help there is trouble in one of the Pan-American countries. He emphasized the imperative need of keeping our neighbors “thinking our way”. And, the President continued, we are showing great promise. Mexico and others are coming around, seeing the danger. If we were to try to accomplish our aims by force, we would see all of these countries tending to fall away and some would be communist within two years. Many of them are afraid of the Castro influence in their own countries. They keep saying that the influence is waning, but they have got to wait and let it happen. The Vice President pointed out that not everything is bad in Cuba, that now for the first time we are seeing a significant change among the people: they don’t like what’s happening. This is beginning to become the sentiment of the professional people and the peasants. Castro is obviously in very great difficulty, and other countries are coming around to see the true situation. The problem is that Castro is in charge in Cuba, not the Communists, as it appears. Things might, however, get so bad that the Communists would have to make an overt move; then we would have them.

Mr. Hoeven reported the concern over Cuba that he had been made aware of in the mid-west. He said people are asking why don’t we do something. A Republican candidate from the Senate is recommending a blockade, claiming that parts for missile bases are being smuggled into Cuba. The President reiterated his caution that if the United States does not conduct itself in precisely the right way vis-à-vis Cuba, we could lose all of South America. The Vice President’s opinion was that the argument is really one over timing. The President has stated, he said, that we will not tolerate a Communist government in Cuba. But the question is what we do meanwhile and when we do it.

Sen. Bridges asked what the answer was to the Laos situation. We have provided hundreds of millions of dollars to Laos, and now what have we to show for it? The President replied that Laos has always been neutralist, that it has to be so. He invited attention to the fact, however, that the Laotians had not deposed their king. Sen. Bridges commented that it would be helpful if the Congress could have an answer on Laos from Sec. Dillon before Friday.³

In the Mutual Security effort, the President said, you lose some countries, you make some mistakes. But, he said, in the over-all look at the good we have done. He acknowledged that he was worried over Central Africa. He had concluded that the reason the Central Africans wanted independence was that they wanted a vote in the United Nations; otherwise, they wouldn’t leave France. Our own people, he continued, are gradually getting the idea that what happens elsewhere in the world affects us. He cited Japan as an example, saying that he had received all kinds of apologies from Japanese and that a Japanese University wants to give him an honorary degree in absentia as a kind of recompense for the treatment he had received. The Vice President agreed, saying that we should note what is happening in Japan now: they are stoning the Communists. He thought perhaps Japan is even more strongly anti-Communist now than they would have been if the President had been able to make his trip there.

[Here follows discussion of other topics.]

JML

0. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Legislative Meetings. Confidential. Drafted by James M. Lambie, Special Assistant in the White House Office.
1. The meeting was held at the White House.
2. Kennedy and Johnson were, respectively, the Democratic Party’s nominees for President and Vice President.
3. August 19.