<--PREV Doc #670  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #672 Document #671; May 1, 1958 To John Foster Dulles Series: EM, AWF, Dulles-Herter Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part IV: Recession and Reform; February 1958 to May 1958 Chapter 10: Restructuring for National Security   Dear Foster: I have read the cablegram from Arthur Dean sent to me by your note of April twenty-fourth.1 The most disappointing thing to me is the readiness of all the Latin American countries to desert our position. Maybe we have got to get a little bit more quid pro quo and do some of our agreements with supposed friends, particularly with an eye on future conferences where the principal sport might seem to be "cutting us down." On another subject, why does Japan seem to oppose everything we want to do in Okinawa, but makes no effort to get Russia out of the Kuriles?2 As ever 1 Arthur H. Dean headed the U.S. delegation to the Geneva Law of the Sea Conference, which had concluded on April 27. For background see nos. 589 and 609. On April 21 Dean had cabled State Department officials regarding the problem of groups of nations, such as the Latin American countries, which voted as a bloc without regard to the merits of a particular issue. Such procedures raised serious questions for U.S. policy, Dean said. Even countries that had received extensive U.S. aid and had long friendships with the United States seemed determined "as newly emancipated nations to vote solidly with their brethren against their former masters and those associated with them." New nations had little realization of the actual meaning of such terms as "territorial sea" or of the duties involved in policing larger off-shore territories but favored expanded territorial limits because they seemed more compatible with their sovereignty as new nations. "Time and again the three-mile breadth was attacked and ridiculed," Dean said. "The ingenuity, ability, capital and markets of the older powers is [sic] resented and the use of large mother ships off coastal waters is frequently denounced as taking the bread out of the mouths of local coastal fishermen out of port on a small ship--on [a] one day basis" (State, Foreign Relations, 1958 - 1960, vol. II, United Nations and General International Matters, pp. 700 - 704; see also Ann Whitman memorandum, May 1, 1958, AWF/AWD). For developments see no. 1307. 2 For background on the Okinawa controversy see no. 646. The Treaty of St. Petersburg between Russia and Japan in 1875 had given Russia control over Sakhalin Island and had given Japan the Kurile Islands. On the Soviet occupation of the islands after World War II see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, no. 1336. Japan had made "strong efforts" to get the Russians to return some portion of the Kuriles, Dulles would tell Eisenhower. "It is true that the Japanese press and public ride us harder than they do the Russians" (Dulles to Eisenhower, May 1, 1958, AWF/D-H; see also Telephone conversation, Dulles and Robertson, May 1, 1958, Dulles Papers, Telephone Conversations). For developments see no. 724. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To John Foster Dulles, 1 May 1958. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 671. 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/671.cfm <--PREV Doc #670  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #672

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