STATEMENT BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00965R000701420004-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 17, 2014
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: May 9, 1960
• Content Type: MISC

Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2014/04/24: CIA-RDP91-00965R000701420004-6
abitirAlrli Mtn 11 UP 11 11
MAY 9, 1960
FOR ME PRESS
STATEMENT BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE,
On May 7 the Department of State spokesman made a'state-
ment with respect to the alleged shooting down of an unarmed
American civilian aircraft of the U-2 type over the Soviet �
Union. The following supplements aldcdarifies this statement
as respects the position of the United-States Government.
Ever since Marshal Stalin shifted the policy of the Soviet
Union from wartime cooperation to postwar conflict in 1946
and particularly since the Berlintlockade,,the forceful take-
over of Czechoslovakia and the Communist'aggressions in Korea
and Vietnam the 'world has lived in a state of appehension with
respect to Soviet intentions. The Soviet leaders have almost
complete access to the open societies of the free ,world and
supplement this with vast espionage networks. However, they
keep their own society tightly closed and rigorously controllei.
With the development of modern weapons carrying 'tremendously
destructive nuclear warheads, the threat of surprise attack
and aggression presents a constant danger. This menace is
enhanced by the threats of mass destruction frequently voiced
by the Soviet leadership.
For many years the United States in company with its �
allies has sought to lessen or even to eliminate this threat
from the life, of man so that he can go about his peaceful
business without fear. Many proposals to this end have been
put up to the Soviet Union. The,President's "open skies"
proposal of 1955 was followed in 1957 by the offer of an
exchange of ground observers between agreed military installa-
tions in the U.S., the USSR and other nations that might wish
to participate. For several years we have been seeking the
mutual abolition of the restrictions on travel imposed by the
Soviet Union and those which the United States felt obliged
to institute on a reciprocal basis. More recently at the
Geneva disarmament conference the United States has proposed
far-reaching new measures of controlled disarmament. It is
possible that the Soviet leaders have a different version and
that, however unjustifiedly, they fear attack from the West,
But this is hard to reconcile with their continual rejection
of our repeated proposals for effective measures against sur-
prise attack and for effective inspection of disarmament
measures.
NO. 254
�.
I will say frankly that it is unacceptable that the
Soviet political system should be given an opportunity to make
secret preparations to face the free world with the choice of
abject surrender or nuclear destruction. The Government of
the United States would be derelict to its responsibility not
only to the American people but to free peoples everywhere
If it did not, in the absence of Soviet cooperation, take
such measures as are possible unilaterally to lessen and to
overcome this danger of surnrise attack. Tn ft tha Unitad
Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2014/04/24 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000701420004-6
Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2014/04/24: CIA-RDP91-00965R000701420004-6
.1
-2- � PR 254
In accordance with the National Security Act of 1947, the
President has put into effect since the beginning of his Admin-
istration directives, to gather by every possible means the
information required to protect the United States and the Free
World against surprise attack and to enable them to make effec-
tive preparations Tor their defense. Under these directives ,pro-
grams have been developed and ;.put into. operation which have
included extensive aerial surveillance by unarmed civilian -
aircraft, nor.mally, of a peripheral character but on b'ccasion- �
by penetration. Specific missions' of these unarmed civilian
aircraft have no,t been subject to Presidential authorization.
The fact that such �SUrveillance.was taking place has apparently
not been a secret to the Soviet leadership and the question
indeed arises as to why at this particular juncture they should
seek to exploit the present incident as a propaganda battle in
the 6O1d war. .
This, government had sincerely hoped'and.continues to hope
that,in the coming meeting of the Heads of GoVernment in Paris
Chairman.Khrushchev Would be prepared to 'cooperate in: agreeing
to effective measures_Which would remove this fear of Sudden
mass destruction from the Minds of peoples everywhere. Far' .
from being, damaging to tlie.forthcOming meeting in Paris, this �
incident should serve to underline the importance to the world'
of an earnest attempt there to achieve agreed and effective
safeguardsagainst-zurprise attack and aggression.
At my request and with the authority of. the President,
the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the, Honorable
Allen W. Dulles, is today briefing members of the Congress:
fully along the foregoing lines. � �
State-- D, Wash.,D.C.
Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2014/04/24: CIA-RDP91-00965R000701420004-6