Home from his trip to the SEATO Conference in Manila, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was feeling gloomy. In Manila he had been dismayed to see how successful the Russians were in getting their summit-meeting propaganda across to Asians. In Washington he found U.S. newspaper front pages giving solemn treatment to the old Russian proposals, which, in effect, were aimed at undermining the strong points of the free world. Dulles decided that it was high time to put on the record some reasons why the U.S. is dead set against going to a summit meeting on Russian terms.
Arming...