Memorandum of Conversation, Bipartisan Leaders Breakfast with the President, Held in the State Dining Room, the White House
This memorandum, authored by press secretary James C. Hagerty, records discussion of the U-2 spy plane incident and its effect on U.S - Soviet relations.
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OCR Page 1 of 8MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION,
BIPARTISAN LEADERS BREAKFAST
WITH THE PRESIDENT, HELD IN THE
STATE DINING ROOM, THE WHITE
HOUSE, THURSDAY, MAY 26, 1960,
AT 8:45 A. M.
The President started the discussion by telling his guests that he
had invited them in for a round table discussion of the events in Paris
of the preceding week. He said that he thought they might want to ask
questions of him or Secretary Herter or Secretary Gates who were
also present. The President also added that he heartily approved of
the inquiry which was being started in the Senate and that the Admin-
istration people, of course, would fully cooperate.
1001
The President said that he specifically wanted to bring up two
questions at the start.
The first was what happened to the U-2 plane. He said that the Soviets
had claimed they had shot it down by rocket, but that he did not believe
this. The Soviets had known about these flights for some time and were
not able to interfere with any of the other flights because of the high
altitudes at which the planes were flying. He pointed out that a picture
of the plane released by the Soviets showed bullet holes in the wings.
No Soviet fighter could get up to 70, 000 feet so it is iobvious that those
holes must have been put in the wing at a lower altitude. He said it is
the present theory that the plane's engine had flamed out, and that the
pilot had to come down to below 70, 000 feet to get the plane working
again. It is possible that at that level Soviet planes could have attacked
the U-2 and that their bullets could have damaged the plane's control
and made it possible for the pilot to destroy the plane.
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The second point the President said he wanted to raise was that of
intelligence and espionage. He said that intelligence and espionage
were distasteful for many Americans, but that he as President from
the very beginning of his Administration had to make decisions based
on what was right for the United States concerning the fundamental
intelligence knowledge that we had to have. In this field, of course,
one had to weigh the risks and the serious consequences that would
result if one were caught. The decision of such espionage is something
that the President, and the President alone, has to decide. The
President fully knows that if anything goes wrong, there will be criticism
DECLASSIFIED
E.O. 12366, SEC. 3.4 (b)
MR 91-154#3
BY Lib
DATE 6/7/94
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