244. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in the United Kingdom1
8878. Please deliver following message from Secretary to Macmillan soonest and inform Stassen.
[Page 631]Verbatim text.
“The President has asked me to reply further to your letter of June 3.2 I have given thoughtful consideration to the issue you raised at the end of your message about the possibility of commencing now the discussions foreseen in the exchange of letters between Mr. Stassen and Commander Noble of last February and March.3
In thinking about this matter, I have reviewed this exchange of letters, including the commitment we undertook at that time.’ to enter into negotiations with you with a view to ensuring that adoption of the United States proposals would not prejudice the development by the United Kingdom of nuclear weapons resources adequate to your needs. We agreed to undertake these negotiations in the event of an affirmative reaction from the Russians to our proposals.
The timing of such negotiations was fully discussed in January and the decision reflected two primary factors: first, it would be hard to estimate either your resources or your needs without knowing when such agreement was likely to take effect, and, second, unless there were favorable prospects for an overall first phase disarmament agreement, measures preparatory to the necessary action by Congress in amending our law would be premature.
I have gone over this situation again with Lewis Strauss who feels that talks now would be premature and perhaps creative of undesirable speculation and resistance if, as seems likely, your sending of a team on this topic to Washington would almost surely become public here or in London. Naturally, it is our instinct always to respond favorably to any suggestion that we should talk with you about any subject but in this particular matter the issues are so sensitive and existing Congressional prohibition so clear that the matter of timing becomes very important.
Of course, we would want to and plan to have further talks as soon as there is an affirmative Soviet reaction to the cutoff idea which would both make the talks practical and also create a climate more conducive to the positive solution for which we hope.
Please let me know if you do not agree.
Faithfully yours, Foster Dulles”
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 330.13/6–1857. Secret; Priority. Drafted by Spiers, Bowie, and Dulles A copy of this telegram is initialed “DE” in the President’s handwriting. (Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Dulles–Herter Series)↩
- See Document 219.↩
- The February 7 letter is not printed. (Department of State, Disarmament Files: Lot 58 D 133, Disarmament Policy) The March 6 letter is printed in Document 176.↩