<--PREV Doc #212  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #214 Document #213; May 26, 1953 To Winston Spencer Churchill Series: EM, AWF, International Series: Churchill ; Category: Cable 7604. Confidential The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part II: Settling into "the long pull"; May 1953 to August 1953 Chapter 3: "A time for continued vigilance"   I appreciate your suggestions for the Bermuda meeting.1 Needless to say, the proposal for the three of us to stay at the Mid-Ocean Golf Club is personally appealing. However, may I suggest that, even though we do not order our lives to meet press reaction, we are meeting on very serious matters, and consequently one of the hotels would seem preferable to the golf club as a meeting place.2 The other arrangements you outline seem eminently satisfactory. I am glad that we are in agreement that our delegations should not be large and I will let you know as soon as I have talked to Foster and made up my mind on the composition of our group. With regard to press representation I think we would have considerable difficulty in limiting ourselves to the extent you suggest. But isn't this a matter which can be discussed further by our appropriate people? While I am most grateful for your thought in inviting me to preside at the formal meetings, it seems to me that as our host you should preside at the opening, at least. It would still be possible for me to arrive on the evening of the 16th provided that proves practicable for the French which I seriously doubt. We asked our people in Paris whether they thought Mayer's commitment to be in Turkey at that moment would create the same obstacle to a mid-June meeting for a new government as it did for the old.3 Ambassador Dillon reported over the weekend that the visit of the French Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister to Ankara is now scheduled from June 23 to June 27, inclusive, and that June 29 seemed the earliest date at which the new Prime Minister could reach Bermuda unless the Turkish visit is again postponed.4 I should not like to press the French to postpone this again. I see no objection to your inquiring directly of the French whether they think they could meet the Mid-June date, although I hardly think that the present Ministers will feel that they can commit the future Prime Minister before he is selected and obtains parliamentary investiture.5 Mamie and I are looking forward to seeing you both. With warmest regards 1 See no. 199. 2 Churchill in his reply of May 28 (AWF/I: Churchill) assured Eisenhower that the name of the hotel was "Mid-Ocean Club. I put `golf' in it to attract you," he said. "Actually the golf links are around this otherwise admirable hotel." See also no. 218. 3 On May 21 Premier René Mayer had requested summary authority to make government budget cuts, and the French National Assembly, the Gaullist party withholding its support, had cast a vote of no confidence. Only a matter of hours after he announced plans for the U.S.-British-French summit meeting, Mayer, a Radical Socialist, had resigned from office. 4 Dillon's message is not in AWF. 5 The French political crisis would continue until the end of June, when the National Assembly finally accepted Joseph Laniel as premier and approved his cabinet. For further developments see no. 423. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Cable 7604. Confidential To Winston Spencer Churchill, 26 May 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 213. 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/213.cfm <--PREV Doc #212  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #214

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