<--PREV Doc #1353  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1355 Document #1354; October 28, 1959 To Charles AndrÉ Joseph Marie de Gaulle Series: EM, AWF, International Series: De Gaulle ; Category: Secret The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part VIII: "Friends and Foes"; September 1959 to February 1960 Chapter 19: Khrushchev in America   Dear General de Gaulle: Thank you for your letter of October twenty-sixth in which you say that you would be agreeable to a Western summit meeting in Paris on December nineteenth.1 I will be happy to be there on that date. Meanwhile I have asked Secretary of State Herter to inaugurate in Washington without delay talks with your Ambassador and the Ambassadors of the Federal Republic and Great Britain for the purpose of preparing for our discussions.2 I believe that we have no time to waste and this thought, as you know, was behind my hope that we Western Heads of Government would be able to meet at an early date. Needless to say we will remain in close and continuous touch with your Government through diplomatic channels.3 Sincerely 1 For background see no. 1350. De Gaulle had repeated his reservations regarding a summit conference "that would be limited to banal declarations of a general nature without positive results." He was also concerned about a "disorderly retreat" on the German problem by the Western powers, which, he said, "would be a severe blow to our Atlantic Alliance." The talks between Eisenhower and Khrushchev and the latter’s acceptance of an invitation to visit France, however, had eased the tensions, de Gaulle wrote, and he agreed to a meeting of the Western powers to begin preparations for a summit meeting to be held preferably in April (AWF/I: de Gaulle). 2 Hervé Alphand was the French Ambassador to the United States. Wilhelm C. Grewe and Harold Caccia were the West German and British ambassadors. 3 For developments see no. 1377. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Secret To Charles AndrÉ Joseph Marie de Gaulle, 28 October 1959. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1354. 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/second-term/documents/1354.cfm <--PREV Doc #1353  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1355

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