<--PREV Doc #712  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #714 Document #713; February 5, 1954 To John Foster Dulles Series: EM, AWF, Dulles-Herter Series ; Category: 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 9: Fending off "the reactionary fringe"   My impression agrees with yours that Western position has been strengthened.1 Possibly this is partly due to uncompromising approach of Molotov, but it certainly is equally the result of your skillful tactics2 and of Bidault's heartening display of courage and stamina.3 He apparently gained great confidence from your example, and I hope that his attitude will be reflected in a like increase in the confidence of the French Parliament and population. With greetings to your party and warm regard to you.4 1 Eisenhower was responding to the third of nine messages Dulles would send him from the Berlin Conference of the foreign ministers of Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States, meeting from January 25 until February 18 (Dulles to Eisenhower, DULTE 36, Feb. 5, 1954, AWF/D-H). A copy of this message with the President's handwritten changes is in AWF/Drafts. For background see no. 597 and Memorandum of Breakfast Conference, Jan. 20, 1954, Dulles Papers. See also State, Foreign Relations, 1952-1954, vol. VII, Germany and Austria, pt. 1, pp. 811-1207; and U.S. Department of State Bulletin 30, no. 766 (March 1, 1954), 316-19. More personal accounts are in Eisenhower, Mandate for Change, pp. 342-44 and Eden, Full Circle, pp. 71-85. Dulles had cabled that the Western delegation had been concerned that the Soviet Union had "struck pay dirt" in suggesting that a united Germany might elect not to remain in EDC and would therefore not be subject to any controls. But then, he said, on February 4 Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov had made a German proposal "so extreme, calling in effect for complete Sovietization [of] all Germany and withdrawal [of] US, UK and French forces, that we believe Western position has been greatly strengthened by exhibition of his uncompromising approach." On the unification of Germany see no. 337. 2 Eisenhower had changed this word from "technique." 3 Dulles had previously cabled (February 1) that Bidault had shown "strength and firmness" and that his statements had been "lofty in tone and statesmanlike in substance" (DULTE 26, AWF/D-H; see also Sulzberger, A Long Row of Candles, pp. 957, 960, 964). 4 The U.S. delegation included thirty-one government officials in addition to the Secretary of State. For developments see no. 722. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Secret To John Foster Dulles, 5 February 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 713. 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/713.cfm <--PREV Doc #712  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #714

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