<--PREV Doc #1641  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1643 Document #1642; September 8, 1960 To Harold Macmillan Series: EM, AWF, International Series: Macmillan ; Category: Cable. Secret The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XXI - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part X: Ending an Era; August 1960 to January 1961 Chapter 23: "To keep the Free World free"   Dear Harold: I have received your two recent notes, and thank you for them. Within recent days, I have heard several reports that General de Gaulle continues to deplore the failure, as he sees it, of our three countries to intervene together in the Congo crisis and lay down a pattern of behavior to be followed by the Congolese. I am sure you must be as puzzled as I am to see how this last purpose could have been achieved. It will be interesting to learn what his reaction is to the long letter I sent him recently.1 With warm regard, As ever 1 Eisenhower was probably referring to Macmillan’s brief letters of August 27 and September 2, 1960 (both in AWF/I: Macmillan), voicing his approval of the President’s response to Charles de Gaulle’s letter of August 9, 1960. The French president had criticized Western lack of unity over the crisis in the Congo; he was also critical of the U.N.’s reliance on African rather than U.S. and British troops (State, Foreign Relations, 1958 - 1960, vol. XIV, Africa, p. 406). Eisenhower had sent the Prime Minister a draft and final copy of his August 30 letter to de Gaulle (no. 1632; see also nos. 1598 and 1610). In his reply Macmillan would write Eisenhower that he also did not see how "we could have organized the Congo as de Gaulle suggests," and he added that they must continue to support the United Nations as "the best chance of keeping the Russians out" (Sept. 9, 1960, AWF/I: Macmillan). For background see nos. 1599 and 1611; Alistair Horne, Harold Macmillan, 2 vols. (New York, 1988 - 89), vol. 2 (1989), pp. 206 - 8, and Macmillan, Pointing the Way, pp. 246 - 47. For developments see no. 1714. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Cable. Secret To Harold Macmillan, 8 September 1960. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1642. 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/1642.cfm <--PREV Doc #1641  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1643

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