Office of the Historian

251. Letter From the President’s Special Assistant (Stassen) to the President1

London, July 1, 1957.

My Dear Mr. President: May I express to you my deep appreciation for your thoughtful and generous comments in your recent press conference regarding my work here.2 Your remarks strengthened my hand during one of the more sensitive and crucial phases of this complex negotiation.

A very substantial and continually growing support has now been firmly enlisted among the Western and free world countries for the major portions of the policies which you decided on May 25. This has been done in accordance with the effective and welcome instructions from Secretary Dulles, and through the coordinated endeavor of the entire U.S. Delegation working as a team. Other free world states are increasingly concluding after study that the U.S. program will enhance the prospects of a lasting peace.

Your June 26th letter to Prime Minister Macmillan3 brought about a firm UK decision to move with us. The new Canadian Prime Minister,4 who I had first met in 1948, invited me to talk with him while he was here for the Commonwealth Conference and I believe that when he returns to his new Cabinet in Ottawa they will support the “open sky” proposals. France has taken the initiative on a European-Russian aerial inspection zone, and has held firm in general support of U.S. policies notwithstanding some efforts internally to persuade the new Prime Minister to shift. An extended conference with the NATO Council on Saturday, June 29,5 with the backing of Canada, France, and the UK, has appeared to clear the way for NATO Council approval. Foreign Minister Brentano of the Federal Republic of Germany took a much more affirmative position in a closed meeting of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee on June 28, and the German press is beginning to reflect a different tone. General Norstad has presented a thoughtful and constructive summary of views to the NATO Council.6

New obstacles may arise, or some of the barriers that are now being lowered may suddenly stiffen, but as of today it looks as if, with free world backing, we are entering the phase of careful and thorough [Page 645] formal presentation to the USSR. I will not endeavor to anticipate their response. I see no reason to be either optimistic or pessimistic but every reason to be persistent and particular. The U.S. Delegation is attempting to be ready for each of the alternative possible Soviet reactions to each major point.

You have my assurance of my continued concentrated and careful endeavor to consummate your policies, moving in accordance with the instructions of Secretary Dulles.

Sincere best wishes to Mrs. Eisenhower and to you, and the hope that the congressional session closes with reasonable success, and that a more restful autumn will follow.

Sincerely,

Harold
  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Administration Series, Stassen. Secret.↩
  2. Reference is presumably to Eisenhower’s remarks about Stassen at his press conference on June 19, printed in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1957, pp. 470–471.↩
  3. See Supra.↩
  4. John George Diefenbaker.↩
  5. A detailed account of this NAC meeting was transmitted in Polto circular 25 from Paris, June 29. (Department of State, Central Files, 330.13/6–2957)↩
  6. Not found in Department of State files.↩