<--PREV Doc #131  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #133 Document #132; April 6, 1953 To Winston Spencer Churchill Series: EM, AWF, International Series: Churchill ; Category: Personal and secret The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part I: Charting a New Course; January 1953 to April 1953 Chapter 2: "A number of misunderstandings": Party and International Struggles   Dear Winston: Thank you very much for your cabled message which reached me this morning.1 I feel sure that you will find our thinking on the subject largely paralleling your own. We feel that it is entirely possible that you will realize your hope of exploring further into the sincerity of the Soviet intentions through your impending negotiations with them on fisheries and so on. I am considering the delivery of a formal speech, with the purpose of setting concretely before the world the peaceful intentions of this country.2 I would hope to do this in such a way as to delineate, at least in outline, the specific steps or measures that we believe necessary to bring about satisfactory relationships with resultant elimination or lowering of tensions throughout the world. These steps are none other than what our governments have sought in the past. I have been working on such a talk for some days and will soon be in a position to show it to your Ambassador, who will of course communicate with you concerning it. While I do not presume to speak for any government other than our own, it would be useless for me to say anything publicly unless I could feel that our principal allies are in general accord with what I will have to say. I am particularly anxious that this be true of Britain,3 and I think it also necessary to check with France and, as regards Germany, with Adenauer who arrives here tomorrow.4 This whole field is strewn with very difficult obstacles, as we all know; but I do think it extremely important that the great masses of the world understand that, on our side, we are deadly serious in our search for peace and are ready to prove this with acts and deeds and not merely assert it in glittering phraseology. This presupposes prior assurance of honest intent on the other side. With warm regard 1 In his wire (AWF/I: Churchill) Churchill had spoken of the "apparent change for the better in the Soviet mood." The British Prime Minister advised remaining vigilant while watching to see "how far the Malenkov regime are prepared to go in easing things up all round. There seem certainly to be great possibilities in Korea," he continued, "and we are very glad of the steps you have taken to resume truce negotiations." Churchill reported that upcoming British-Soviet talks on an expiring fisheries treaty "may give us some further indication of the depth of the Soviet purpose." He hoped that any Soviet proposal for direct discussion of world problems would produce the "closest collaboration." For Churchill's late-March and early-April drafts of messages to Molotov see Churchill and Gilbert, Churchill, vol. VIII, Never Despair, 1945-1965, pp. 811-12. 2 On April 16 (despite a mild case of food poisoning), Eisenhower would address the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He would deliver "The Chance for Peace," a speech offering a five-point program for world peace, disarmament, and reconstruction. The President would call for an end to the Korean War (see no. 152), a cap on military forces, either by absolute size or agreed-upon ratios (see no. 72), a limit on production and supplies of military-strategic materials, international control of atomic weapons, the limitation or prohibition of other "weapons of great destructiveness," and international arms inspection under U.N. auspices. For the text of the address see Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1953, pp. 179-88. 3 See nos. 146 and 160. 4 The West German Chancellor arrived in New York on April 6 for three days of conferences with Eisenhower, Dulles, and other U.S. officials. The meetings would cover West German contributions to Western defense, U.S. military aid to Adenauer's government, settlement of Franco-German differences on the future of the Saar coal-producing region (see State, Foreign Relations, 1952-1954, vol. V, Western European Security, pt. 1, pp. 786-88), the security and economy of West Berlin, the refugee problem (see no. 129), and commerical relations between the two countries (New York Times, Apr. 10, 1953). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and secret To Winston Spencer Churchill, 6 April 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 132. 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/132.cfm <--PREV Doc #131  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #133

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