• • THE WHITE HOUSE DECLASSIFIED WASHINGTON TOP SECRET MEMORANDUM TO THE SECRET ARY OF ST ATE The President and Fanfani talked mainly about the Jupiter problem this morning and they did it enti r ely alone with a t r anslator Fanfani took the line that while the missiles we r e of no military significance he might come under political attack i f they were removed He had been wa rned by his Foreign Minister and his Defense Minister that there would be a political debate and he appar e ntly felt that he hims e lf might be a ccused of softness toward the left-wingers who want the missiles out The President asked Bob McNamara to press home with Fanfani this afternoo n the degree of military advantage that w ould come from getting the Jupiters out and getting on with other and less vulnerable weapons systems Bob plans to do this especially by emphasizing how much of a hostage the missiles are at a moment of tension The President's view is that we should go hard down this line on the g round that we shall n eve r have a better c hance to get these dange rous weapons off the scene before a n ew crisis and he believes that we should continue to emphasize with Fanfani the advantages of a firm a nd early decision There is still some disagreement as to whether Jupiters themselves should be mentioned in the communique Both Alexis Johnson and George Ball think it is better n ot but Bob is very eager to have the c - w - q '° ge nera l proposition of moderrozaoon 1ncluda ig Sergeant-fo r- Corporal a nd Polaris-for-Jupiter 1111ee'1 on background basis at least The Communists are beginning to talk as if this were some sort of nefarious Cuban bargain and it seems to Bob important to get our own reasoning and purpose clearly and firmly stated now I must say I agree with this latter view a I am having this delivered to you at lunch because it seems to be very difficult to catch up with one another and you may want to look at it and speak with the President about it before you leave the White House 4S McGeorge Bundy