<--PREV Doc #568  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #570 Document #569; December 1, 1953 To John Foster Dulles Series: EM, AWF, Dulles-Herter Series ; Category: Top secret The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part IV: "Pushing ahead along the broad center"; December 1953 to March 1954 Chapter 8: A world "racing toward catastrophe"   Memorandum for the Secretary of State: I have just read the two cables from Conant concerning his meetings with Adenauer. I find them not only interesting but, as usual, packed with a lot of common sense (or what appeals to me as common sense).1 When next we meet, I hope we shall have an opportunity to talk them over briefly.2 1 Both cables dealt with Adenauer's reaction to a Soviet note, the latest in a series, reversing the previous Soviet stance and expressing a willingness to meet with the foreign ministers of the United States, England, and France (Conant to Dulles, no. 1797 and no. 1798, Nov. 30, 1953, AWF/D-H; for background see no. 528, and for the complete text of the Soviet note of November 26 see U.S. Department of State Bulletin 29, no. 756 [December 21, 1953], 853-54). Adenauer, Conant reported, felt that it would be "suicide" if a meeting with the Soviet Union took place before the proposed French presidential elections and that the order of procedure, when the meeting occurred, should place a discussion of German unification ahead of European security. He suggested that any response to the Soviet proposal should be designed to gain time. For background on free elections in Germany see no. 337. For developments regarding the French elections see no. 632. Adenauer also expressed his hope that U.S. military strength would be present in Europe for a long time. "He would much rather look forward to Germany working in partnership with Britain, France and [the] US than be left alone on the continent with hysterical France." 2 Eisenhower had handwritten a postscript at the bottom of this memorandum that read, "We must have early conference of 4 foreign ministers--because France is using possible conference as excuse to avoid decision on EDC." Adenauer would later change his mind and support this view (State, Foreign Relations, 1952-1954, vol. VII, Germany and Austria, pt. 1, pp. 684-86; for additional reaction to the Soviet note see ibid., pp. 677-81). A reply to the Soviets would be drafted and approved on December 7 at the Bermuda Conference (see no. 597). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Top secret To John Foster Dulles, 1 December 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 569. 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/569.cfm <--PREV Doc #568  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #570

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