474 Foreign Relations, 1958-1960, Volume IX



    The President stated that President de Gaulle had invited Mr.
Khrushchev to this meeting and that the latter had not even been courte-
ous enough to reply and had only called through a third person. We
have been here since three p.m.; there have been these telephone mes-
sages going on, and it was obvious that on this basis the Conference
could not start. Khrushchev in effect had refused to come.
    Foreign Secretary Lloyd interjected that Khrushchev did not refuse
but had rather asked us what the purpose of the meeting was.
    The President wondered why Mr. Khrushchev had questioned this
meeting rather than come to attend it.
    Prime Minister Macmillan suggested that Mr. Khrushchev be given
a written reply as to the nature of this meeting.
    The President observed that Mr. Khrushchev had asked what kind
of meeting this was, so it was obvious that he was not prepared to come
to a Summit meeting.
    Couve de Murville reported that there was a new message on be-
half of Mr. Khrushchev asking by what time he could have a reply to his
request for clarification as to the nature of this meeting.
    Prime Minister Macmillan suggested that this reply could be made
either in the form of a letter from President de Gaulle, or President de
Gaulle could invite Mr. Khrushchev and explain to him the situation.
    President de Gaulle stated that as to the first suggestion, he had no
intention of writing to Mr. Khrushchev in view of the latter's failure to
reply to his letter. As to the second suggestion, this was a Byzantine
method, and we all knew how the Byzantine Empire had ended. He
then listed Mr. Khrushchev's three conditions, and said that in spite of
the fact that they had been publicized by Mr. Khrushchev, he had writ-
ten him, by extreme good will, and invited him to come to this meeting.
Mr. Khrushchev had failed to reply and had merely asked through a
third person by telephone three times in succession whether the condi-
tions for the Summit meeting had been fulfilled. It was true that he did
not refer to his own conditions, but it was obvious that this was what he
meant. So, President de Gaulle continued, this was enough, and he
would publish his communique because he had the right to take note
and state publicly that Mr. Khrushchev had not attended the meeting.
He then said that as an extreme concession he would agree to have the
joint communique published tomorrow morning. It would then be up to
Mr. Khrushchev to bring about a change in the situation because only he
could do that. President de Gaulle then said that he had just received the
text of a press statement by Khrushchev, given to the press by Khar-
lamov, his press officer, which read as follows:

    "I am ready to participate in a meeting with President de Gaulle,
Prime Minister Macmillan, and President Eisenhower to exchange