<--PREV Doc #1521  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1523 Document #1522; April 29, 1960 To Lauris Norstad Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series ; Category: Secret The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part IX: Shattered Dreams; March 1960 to July 1960 Chapter 21: "Progress in a knotty problem"   Dear Larry: It was a help to me to have, prior to my meeting with General de Gaulle, your letter giving me the status of military questions involving the French, and your recommendations concerning them.1 There was no good opportunity to press the matter of air defense organization. I did, however, discuss with him several times the idea of an inspection zone. His conception is to apply this on a world-wide basis covering the means of delivery--aircraft and missiles--of nuclear weapons. I emphasized to him the value of proposing a more limited project which would begin to test out the good faith of the Soviets, as well as the practical possibility of achieving effective inspection, and told him this proposal could be a fall-back position should his more comprehensive plan not be accepted. I must frankly admit that I cannot be sure of the extent to which this proposal really got through to him, his mind being so fixed on his own conception. At the least, however, he will be well aware of the idea if we should pursue it further at the Summit.2 With warm regard, Sincerely 1 For background on negotiations with the French on air defense organization see no. 1435; on the de Gaulle meetings and the discussion of inspection zones see no. 1516. For Eisenhower’s March meeting with Norstad regarding these issues see Goodpaster, Memorandum of Conference, March 15, 1960, AWF/D. In an April 20 letter to Eisenhower (AWF/A) Norstad had written that an agreement in principle had been worked out whereby metropolitan France would be a separate air defense region under SHAPE and that the French Territorial Air Defense would have the same relationship with NATO as the British Fighter Command. De Gaulle had not yet considered the proposal, and Norstad had suggested that Eisenhower "apply a little pressure at this time." The stockpiling of atomic weapons in France was a dormant issue, Norstad thought, and one de Gaulle would not raise. He did think, however, that the French president would want to discuss atomic cooperation and the need for tripartite consultations. 2 For more on the de Gaulle talks see the following document. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Secret To Lauris Norstad, 29 April 1960. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1522. 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/1522.cfm <--PREV Doc #1521  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1523

Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission 1629 K Street, NW Suite 801 Washington DC 20006 Phone: 202.296.0004    Fax: 202.296.6464