Office of the Historian

55. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation Between Secretary of State Dulles and the Under Secretary of State (Herter)0

Washington, April 8, 1958, 12:15 p.m.

TELEPHONE CALL TO GOV. HERTER

The Sec. said he heard that a bad story may break in connection with Indonesia. Herter said he had talked to Allen Dulles about it, who was going to look into it right away.1 Herter thinks it is better to have it come from Allen than us. If it breaks it will be bad enough. The fellow who was going to write the story was just intimating. He may not do it. It came from Sjafruddin. Herter said it was a little naive to put it mildly. They seemed to have a pretty full story on the drops. The Sec. said we would have to be thinking what we would do if it breaks. The Sec. said he was asked at his press conference if we were giving help to the rebels. The Sec. had said no.2 Herter said he was afraid we would have to play it that way. Herter said even if the thing was published, they would not be able to get the hard facts.3

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, General Telephone Conversations. No classification marking. Drafted by Mildred J. Asbjornson, Dulles’ secretary.↩
  2. Reference is to Dulles’ press conference held earlier that day; for text, see Department of State Bulletin, April 28, 1958, pp. 684–685.↩
  3. Herter spoke with Allen Dulles on the telephone that morning at 11:20, saying that two newspapermen were going to file stories indicating that the United State was aiding the Indonesian rebels. Herter asked Dulles if he felt he could stop these stories through David Lawrence and James Knight. Dulles replied he could handle Lawrence and he knew Knight and would see what he could do. (Memorandum of telephone conversation, April 8; Eisenhower Library, Herter Papers, Telephone Conversations) David Lawrence was president and editor of U.S. News and World Report and a syndicated columnist; James L. Knight was executive vice-president of Knight Newspapers, Inc.↩
  4. Allen Dulles and Herter spoke again on the telephone about this matter at 6:05 p.m. the following day. Dulles said, “he had run down the two stories. The Chicago Daily News story was out this morning and was fairly discreet. He had talked with David Lawrence, who had had a long story from his man which will probably be published Monday. His man also is quite discreet. Only descriptive line is that the drops came like manna from heaven.” (Memorandum of telephone conversation, April 9; ibid.)↩