The Camp David Conference

Midway in the second day of their man-to-man talks at Camp David on Maryland's Catoctin Mountain, President Eisenhower turned to Nikita Khrushchev with a personal appeal. Said he: "You have the opportunity to make a great contribution to history by making it possible to ease tensions. It is within your hands." Nikita Khrushchev, unchallenged ruler of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and its satellites, was in an unusual position. His was the line that the U.S. was blocking world peace. Yet, in the strangely relaxed and friendly atmosphere of the guarded mountain retreat, Dwight Eisenhower, determinedly serious, was pinning him down to the specific issue of Berlin as the major threat to peace. Again and again the President refused to be led down the semantic path to a discussion of such generalities as disarmament and trade. Again and again he brought the conversation back to the Russian threat to Berlin, until, on the third day, he got Khrushchev to agree to a removal of all vestiges of ultimatum or threat on Berlin negotiations.

Five Strikes & a Spare. Eisenhower and Khrushchev flew from Washington to Camp David together in a helicopter, accompanied only by their interpreters and secret-service details. Their principal aides--Secretary of State Christian Herter and Ambassador to the U.N. Henry Cabot Lodge; Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and U.S.S.R. Ambassador Mikhail Menshikov--also helicoptered together. First evening the two parties sat down to a roast beef dinner, afterwards watched U.S. Navy movies taken on the North Pole trip of the nuclear submarine Nautilus, and also took in a western movie. The sleeping arrangements: Eisenhower, Herter, Khrushchev, Gromyko had adjoining single rooms in the south wing of Camp David's main residence, Aspen Lodge.

In midmorning of the second day, Eisenhower and Khrushchev took a breather, wandered together into Camp David's recently installed two-lane bowling alley, watched a Navy yeoman put together five strikes and a spare, and autographed his score card of 218. In mid-conference that afternoon, Eisenhower and Khrushchev took off together in a helicopter for Eisenhower's Gettysburg farm. Khrushchev inspected Eisenhower's prize herd of Black Angus cattle, dropped by the main farmhouse to greet

Eisenhower's daughter-in-law Barbara and the four Eisenhower grandchildren. There Eisenhower and Khrushchev reached substantive agreement of a sort. They agreed to defer President Eisenhower's return visit to the U.S.S.R. until the flowers bloom in the spring. Reason, according to Khrushchev: Eisenhower agreed to bring his grandchildren to Russia, would prefer spring's warmer weather.

Ready for Failure. Between the visible shows of geniality, the two were joined in the toughest debate between Chiefs of State since the summits of World War II. Eisenhower, who did almost all the talking on the U.S. side, made it clear that the U.S. would negotiate on 1) reducing the size of Western garrisons in Berlin, 2.) cutting down propaganda and espionage activities, 3) setting up an all-German commission to work on long-range plans for German reunification. Khrushchev, who did all the talking on the U.S.S.R. side, said only that he would consider some form of U.N. guarantee for neutralized Berlin, and that only after the Western forces had pulled out.

On the second evening, Eisenhower told his aides that he would not sign any communique that might give the appearance of agreement that was no agreement. He might, he said, simply put out an individual American statement. And secretly he put in a request for time on all TV networks to report to the people if failure there should be.

Shock Avoided. On Sunday morning Eisenhower was up early, drove 25 miles to attend service at the United Presbyterian Church at Gettysburg. After the one-hour-25-minute service he tol.d the pastor (Robert A. MacAskill): "I offered to bring Mr. Khrushchev to church, but he declined. He said it would be a shock to his people."

Back at Camp David, the last round of talks got under way as soon as he got home. Again the President laid down to Khrushchev his basic requirement of good faith: Khrushchev must make it plain that Western rights to remain in West Berlin will not be impaired, and he must remove all threats. Khrushchev at last conceded. The details: 1) Eisenhower and Khrushchev would agree in a formal communique to reopen negotiations on the future of Berlin and Germany; 2) Eisenhower would say publicly this week that Khrushchev had withdrawn all cut-off dates and time limits on Western rights in West Berlin; 3) at the same time, Khrushchev would issue a confirmatory statement in Moscow.

Thus the Camp David conference ended on a friendly note. Eisenhower and Khrushchev delayed their departure for an hour and a half so that they could have lunch, rode the 60 miles back to Washington in a helicopter together while their aides got out the communique the world waited for.

It reported on a frank exchange of opinion and an agreement that "the question of general disarmament is the most important one facing the world today." Then came the key message on Germany. "On the question of Germany, the positions of both sides were expounded. With respect to the specific Berlin question, an understanding was reached, subject to the approval of the other parties concerned, that negotiations would be reopened with a view to achieving a solution."

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