<--PREV Doc #60  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #62 Document #61; March 8, 1957 To Christian Archibald Herter Series: EM, AWF, Dulles-Herter Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVIII - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part I: A New Beginning, Old Problems; January 1957 to May 1957 Chapter 1: The Mideast and the Eisenhower Doctrine   Memorandum for the Acting Secretary of State:1 Herewith a copy of a letter I have just received from the Prime Minister of Holland, handed to me this morning by the Ambassador from that country.2 In addition to the statements made in the letter, the Ambassador verbally made the point that Holland was a very good customer of America's and has an annual trade deficit of some three hundred million dollars with us. He said also that Holland was going to great lengths to carry out her obligations in NATO, even increasing her defense expenditures this year by some twelve to fifteen percent. This, he said, is being done in the face of a very threatening inflation. Because Holland has an annual trade deficit in the exchange of goods, it is necessary that it perform services to the world. One of its most important is in the operation of KLM. The Dutch government is very hopeful that we will take all of these factors into consideration when our negotiating teams meet on March 19th and that we will not allow ourselves to be influenced too much by factors exclusively pertaining to civil aviation. He made the additional point that the German, British and Scandinavian Airlines enjoy privileges in our country of the type that Holland seeks.3 1 For background on Herter, Under Secretary of State since February 21, see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, no. 933. Secretary Dulles was in Australia for the South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) Council meeting. This letter was also sent to Attorney General Herbert Brownell, who would tell Eisenhower that the Justice Department had not been asked to participate in the negotiations. At the top of his response, telling Eisenhower that the issue was "exclusively in the hands of the State Department," Ann Whitman had written "all my fault" (Brownell to Eisenhower, Mar. 8, 1957, AWF/A). 2 Dr. Willem Drees, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, had asked that Eisenhower give "special attention" to the negotiations between his country and the United States that were scheduled to begin in Washington on March 19. The Dutch were trying to replace a temporary arrangement regulating air routes between the two countries with a permanent civil air agreement. They also sought the expansion of KLM Royal Dutch Airline service in the United States to include stops in Los Angeles, Miami, and Houston. "The special geographic and demographic situation of my country, its limited natural resources," Drees said, "require that the Netherlands maintain its historic position as a world carrier, if it is to pull its weight as a sound member of the Western Alliance" (Drees to Eisenhower, Feb. 28, 1957, AWF/I: Netherlands; see also State, Foreign Relations, 1955 - 1957, vol. IX, Foreign Economic Policy; Foreign Information Program, p. 461). Dr. Jan Herman van Roijen was the Netherlands' ambassador to the United States. 3On April 3 the two countries would agree to give KLM permission to begin service to Miami and Houston. The Dutch proposal to fly the Los Angeles route, which the Netherlands regarded as the most significant of the three, was rejected (see U.S. Department of State Bulletin 36, no. 928 [April 8, 1957], 579 - 80; no. 932 [May 6, 1957], 746 - 50; and ibid., no. 939 [June 24, 1957], 1013; see also Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1957, pp. 226 - 27; and New York Times, Mar. 11, 22, Apr. 1, 4, 6, 1957). Attempts by the Netherlands to negotiate a route to the West Coast would continue until the end of Eisenhower's Administration (see [Luns] to Eisenhower, Oct. 7, 1960; and de Quay to Eisenhower, Jan. 6, 1961, both in AWF/I: Netherlands). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Christian Archibald Herter, 8 March 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 61. 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/61.cfm <--PREV Doc #60  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #62

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