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Papers, 1953-61
(Ann hitman file)
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then we will go ahead by ourselves", but we must have coordin-~
ation with the British. Mr. Herter said he was seeing Ambassador
Caccia at noon and the President suggested that the Secretary ask
Caceia to inform Macmillan. Our line could be that before the
Geneva negotiations adjourned, we would say that we are going to
begin to make our underground nuclear tests - small ones and for
the purpose of improving seismic instrumentation. We feel that
it has to be done. Every decent proposal we have made, the Soviets
have flatly turned down. We should get Macmillan's reaction; he
has come a long way on POLARIS.
Mr. MceCone stated that there had been a considerable deterioration in the negotiations since July 7.
Tsarapkin had proposed three site inspections and it was reported that that proposal was not negotiable.
It is also reported that Tsarapkin is
calling for 15 instead of 21 stations. Tsarapkin has not agreed
to a single thing since November except the 4.75 threshold. He
is an old-time negotiator, continued Mr. McCone; he negotiated
the 38th Parallel in Korea, after exhausting the opposition. The
President asked if that was in 1945 and Mr. McCone said that it
Was.
Secretary Herter gave the evaluation that the Soviets will
not agree to any tests until after conclusion of a treaty.
The President suggested that perhaps we ought to send someone to London to talk to the British - either Mr. McCone or someone from the State Department.
Then we could get away from the
fall-back proposal. The President said he agreed with the Vice
President with respect to what the political opposition would do
and that they would interpret our action as being soft on communism.
Congress so loves to keep secrets which the enemy has had for so
long, mused the President.
Secretary Herter inquired whether he had the President's
approval for taking the matter up with Ambassador Caccia.
The
President said that Mr. Herter could start with the Ambassador.
The Vice Fresident counselled that it was of the utmost
importance, in our conversations with the British, that no mention
be made of any domestic political considerations which might be
involved.
The President replied that he himself could "tell Harold".
General Persons commented that the Majority leaders in Congress
had made it very clear to him that this was going to be a light
session and that Congress would only deal with a limited number of
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