<--PREV Doc #1046  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1048 Document #1047; September 3, 1954 To Walter Bedell Smith Series: EM, AWF, Dulles-Herter Series ; Category: Teletype. Top secret The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part VI: Crises Abroad, Party Problems at Home; September 1954 to December 1954 Chapter 132: Asia: A "boiling kettle of possible trouble"   Your teletype message about Trieste came just after I had dictated a note to you, now on its way by pouch, on the same subject.1 I am most anxious that we do everything possible to settle the Trieste situation, and I am heartily in favor of your suggestion of sending Bob Murphy on the mission.2 I would of course approve the verbal messages to Tito and Scelba, providing they have the Secretary's concurrence.3 I instinctively share your feeling the approach to Tito should take more the terms of a warning, while in Scelba's case the proper term might be mild, even to the point of being encouraging. Another subject: What are the Chiefs of Staff suggestions about Quemoy?4 I hope the business at Walter Reed this afternoon has been successfully and painlessly concluded.5 Warm regard 1 Eisenhower's previous note is no. 1045. 2 Smith had written that he was considering sending Robert Murphy, Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, to Rome and Belgrade "in a final effort to conclude [the] Trieste negotiations, which seem nearly stalemated" (Sept. 3, 1954, AWF/D-H; for background see no. 1045). 3 Smith had suggested that Murphy deliver personal messages from Eisenhower to Italian Prime Minister Scelba and President Tito, warning both "of future less sympathetic U.S. attitude toward their requests for economic and military aid if they refuse [the] concessions we seek." Dulles would agree "that we should make some supreme effort to try to settle this matter before October as [the] anniversary of our October 8 proposal could be an unhappy date" (State, Foreign Relations, 1952-1954, vol. VIII, Eastern Europe; Soviet Union; Eastern Mediterranean, pp. 517-18; for the proposal of October 8, 1953, see no. 457). For developments see no. 1048. 4 Acting Secretary of Defense Robert Anderson had informed Eisenhower that at 1:45 a.m. EDT on this same day the Chinese Communists had begun "heavy artillery shelling" of the Nationalist-held island of Quemoy off the coast of mainland China. Anderson had received the recommendations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, prepared prior to the attack, later on this day. Chairman Arthur Radford, Air Force Chief of Staff Nathan Twining, and Chief of Naval Operations Robert Carney believed that the offshore islands were "important but not essential to the defense of Formosa from a military standpoint" and recommended that national policy be changed to permit U.S. naval and air forces to assist in the defense of ten selected islands, including Quemoy. Army Chief of Staff Matthew Ridgway had disagreed, stating that the islands were not essential to the defense of Formosa (Anderson to Eisenhower, Sept. 3, 1954, AWF/D-H; Watson, History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, vol. V, 1953-1954, pp. 261-62; see also Eisenhower, Mandate for Change, pp. 459-64). Radford would present these views at the September 9 meeting of the NSC and again on September 12 at the meeting held in Denver (NSC meeting minutes, Sept. 10, 13, 1954, AWF/NSC). For background see Memorandum of Conversation, May 25, 1954, Dulles Papers, White House Memoranda Series; for developments see no. 1050. 5 Smith's health (he suffered from lumbago and ulcers) had also concerned Eisenhower earlier in the summer (see Telephone conversations, Eisenhower and Dulles, and Eisenhower and Smith, July 14, 1954, AWF/D; see also Memorandum of Conversation, Eisenhower and Dulles, July 20, 1954, AWF/AWD). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Teletype. Top secret To Walter Bedell Smith, 3 September 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1047. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/1047.cfm <--PREV Doc #1046  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1048

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