411551
9 August 1957
MEMORANDUM FOR FILES OF LEWIS L.,
STRAUSS
At a meeting this morning between the President and
Secretary Dulles, the Secretary had discussed the HARDTACK
series, the Class "A" weapon letter, and the disarmament
negotiations,
among other subjects.
In respect of these
three, the President had said that he did not wish to make
decisions without obtaining my point of view and, accordingly,
Major John Eisenhower, who is acting for General Goodpaster,
telephoned me during the course of the morning and asked me
to come to the President's office at 2:30 this afternoon
where I was met by Mr. Dulles.
—
He approved HARDTACK with the understanding that
there would be no public announcement until I had conferred
boul
i
nf
fil
€
#3)
é
"1349
C.
epeer et te it
§ freus3
seememe atm aie tentnens
with him again,
bohre,
poe REEVE
boal hay
The President approved the additional oralloy for
PLUMBBOB.
upon DoD.
and this we
should be careful to impress
He asked me to try and reduce the number of shots
and to compress the period of the tests. He said he felt
that we should announce (he meant State) that in the event
of an agreement to suspend tests, since it would not be
possible to obtain a ratification inside of 12 months, that
we would conduct tests within that period.
He approved the recommendation in the memorandum from
the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and myself
on the Class "A" weapon as contained in the NSC paper of
July 26th.
He
stated that he was not
in accord with our reasonina
to limit the suspension to 12 months or even to 1E months
as the Secretary of State had recommended, but to 24 months.
He recognized the validity of my arguments as to the possible
effect on the Laboratories but
said that he thought I was
unduly pessimistic.
He said he thought we had enough of
"public policy making by scientists."
me what
Prior to the meeting the Secretary of State had told
the President was likely to
24 months,
ments,
but
say on this subject,
the Secretary's remarks had included,
this is not acing to happen.
agree to the cther terms,"
"Of course,
The Russians are not going to
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
LLS/vhw
viz.,
so that I had an opportunity to marshal my arau-
Lewis L,
Strauss