Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Letter to Nikolai Bulganin, Chairman, Council of Ministers, U.S.S.R.

October 12, 1955

[Released October 12, 1955. Dated October 11, 1955]

Dear Mr. Chairman:

I wish to thank you for your letter of September 19, 1955 about my Geneva proposal of July 21 that we exchange information about military establishments and permit reciprocal aerial inspection over our two countries.

You raise a good many questions, and I shall not be able to reply to them until the doctors let me do more than at present. In any event, a full reply calls for preliminary work by my advisers and this is actively under way.

Let me now say, however, that I am encouraged that you are giving such full consideration to my Geneva proposal. I hope that we can agree on it, not as a cure-all, but, as I said at Geneva, to show a spirit of non-aggressiveness on both sides and so to create a fresh atmosphere which would dispel much of the present fear and suspicion. This, of itself, would be worthwhile. It would, I believe, make it more possible to make progress in terms of comprehensive plans for inspection, controls and reductions of armament, which will satisfy the high hopes of our peoples, and indeed of all the world.

I have not forgotten your proposal having to do with stationing inspection teams at key points in our countries, and if you feel this would help to create the better spirit I refer to, we could accept that too.

With best wishes,

Sincerely,

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

Note: Mr. Bulganln's letter of September 19, released by the White House on September 23, is published in the Department of State Bulletin (vol. 33, P. 644). The President's July 21 proposal at Geneva appears as Item 166, above.
This letter was released at Lowry Air Force Base, Denver, Colo.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Letter to Nikolai Bulganin, Chairman, Council of Ministers, U.S.S.R. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/233637

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