454. Memorandum of Conversation0
SUBJECT
- Meeting of the President and Canadian Prime Minister Pearson
PARTICIPANTS
- Prime Minister Pearson
- External Affairs Minister Paul Martin
- Ambassador C. S. A. Ritchie
- The President1
- The Secretary
- Wharton D. Hubbard, Canadian Desk Officer, BNA
Canadian Prime Minister Pearson, accompanied by External Affairs Minister Martin and Ambassador Ritchie, called on the President and the Secretary at 7:45 p.m., November 25, 1963, at the Secretary’s office.
[Page 1215]The President, in greeting the Prime Minister, thanked the latter for coming to have a brief talk and remarked that U.S. and Canadian problems and interests had a great deal in common. The President assured the Prime Minister that he wished to maintain close and harmonious relations with Canada and that, as a matter of fact, he wanted to visit Canada so as to show his interest in that country and to get to know it better.
The Prime Minister, for his part, made it clear that the Canadian Government wished to cooperate to the greatest extent possible with the President and his administration. The Canadian Government could be counted on to understand the many problems facing the United States Government. The two governments must work in harmony and they could not do without each other. The Prime Minister believed it only candid to point out, however, that quite a few bilateral problems did exist and gave the Great Lakes labor dispute as an example. He had telephoned President Kennedy, as one practicing politician to another, about this matter and had explained the domestic, Canadian political implications. The Prime Minister had indicated he hoped President Kennedy could offer his help in the matter. According to the Prime Minister, President Kennedy said he understood the problem but also pointed out that this dispute presented political problems for him, too. The Canadian Prime Minister gave this as an example of a bilateral problem where a President and a Prime Minister both understood the practical considerations of each other’s position. The Prime Minister believed he had had a very good relationship with President Kennedy in these matters.
The President agreed that such a relationship was essential to the proper conduct of business by the two countries and said he wished very much to carry on in the same spirit.
(There then followed a few minutes interval while the press photographed the President and Prime Minister, after which the Secretary, Minister Martin, and Ambassador Ritchie, who had been conversing in another corner of the room, joined the President and the Prime Minister.)
The Prime Minister mentioned that he was arranging for a “hot line” (presumably Ottawa/Washington). A discussion of the “hot line” between Washington and Moscow ensued. (However, the Prime Minister did not elaborate on why he had raised the subject.)
The conversation then turned to a possible visit to Canada by the President. The Prime Minister suggested that perhaps it would be best if he came first to Washington to talk to the President and that the latter could then visit Canada later at the President’s convenience. At this juncture, the Prime Minister remarked that President Kennedy had been scheduled in the near future to receive an honorary degree from his (the Prime Minister’s) alma mater, the University of Toronto. It was [Page 1216] agreed that the Prime Minister would have a talk with the President in Washington first, after the President had had “a few weeks” time to organize his work, and that the Canadian Prime Minister would then invite the President to Canada.
The President said he could see no reason why problems between Canada and the United States could not be resolved and that he believed that relations between the two countries were on a fundamentally sound basis. The Prime Minister generally agreed but insisted that there were more bilateral problems than was generally supposed. Likewise, he pointed out that Canadian sensitivities were not always understood. However, the Prime Minister said the Canadian Government would be straightforward with the U.S. Government and would support it on the big issues.
The Prime Minister then noted that he would be holding a Canadian federal-provincial conference in Ottawa, beginning the next day, November 26, 1963, and that it was of the utmost importance to him. In a somewhat jocular mood, he said he might be calling on the President for help in regard to it. In the same vein, the President said he was available for any kind of help at any time.
As the meeting came to an end, the Secretary turned to External Affairs Minister Martin and said he hoped to be able to arrange a side meeting with him at Paris over the weekend before the NATO Ministerial Meeting. Mr. Martin agreed, saying he would be leaving Ottawa for Paris the previous Friday evening. The Prime Minister, at the mention of Paris, said this reminded him that he, too, would be visiting Paris soon, in early January, to visit President DeGaulle.
The meeting was terminated at 8:00 p.m.