26 Foreign Relations, 1958-1960, Volume IX



9.   Memorandum of Conversation


US/MC/20a                Sussex, England, August 29, 1959, 3:30 p.m.

                 PRESIDENT'S TRIP TO EUROPE

                      August-September 1959

PARTICIPANTS
    United States                      United Kingdom
    President Eisenhower               Prime Minister Macmillan
    Secretary of State Herter          Foreign Secretary Lloyd
    Deputy Secretary Gates             Sir Norman Brook
    Mr. Merchant                       Ambassador Caccia
    Mr. Irwin                          Sir Anthony Rumbold
    Mr. Berding                        Sir Frederick Hoyer Millar
    Mr. Hagerty                        Mr. Blye
    General Goodpaster                 Mr. de Zulueta
    Major Eisenhower                   Mr. Evans
    Mr. White                          Mr. Wilding

    [Here follows discussion of unrelated matters.]
    With the conclusion of the discussion of the subjects of the previous
day, it was suggested that the British participants would be very inter-
ested in the President's appraisal of the discussions with Chancellor
Adenauer in Bonn. The President replied that his record was not com-
plete because the afternoon session, which he had assumed would be
with the Chancellor on a private basis for only five minutes, had contin-
ued for one and a half hours without the presence of his U.S. interpreter.
Mr. Herter added that it might be some time before we had an approved
record because the German interpreter would have to clear his notes
with the Chancellor who was returning to Italy. Mr. Herter said that the
Bonn discussions were of interest because they had introduced a new
element of possible acceptance by the Germans of a "Free City of Ber-
lin". (It was later made clear that the Soviet proposal for a Free City
was
of course unacceptable.) Brentano had spontaneously referred to the
long run possibility of the Berlin problem being settled by the adoption
of some sort of free city solution. He also mentioned a UN guarantee.
    The President said that the Chancellor had regarded the German
question as one susceptible only to a long-term solution, requiring lots
of patience with the possibility of a gradually growing interchange of


    Source: Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 64 D 560, CF 1449.
Secret; Limit
Distribution. Drafted by Ivan B. White, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
for European
Affairs, and approved in S and by Goodpaster on September 2. The conversation
took
place at Chequers, the Prime Minister's summer home.