Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation, lot 65 D 238, “Memcons W/ Pres, 1952”
Memorandum of Conversation With the President, by the Secretary of State
Item 2. The Present Situation regarding the EDC and the Contractual Negotiations.1
I went over the principal matters still unresolved leading up to asking the President’s advice or instruction as to whether I should take off some time today for Europe. I reported to him the letter from Mr. Eden urging that I go.2
The President was strongly of the opinion that I should go. He recognized the hazards of failure but in his judgment these were more than balanced by the greatly increased possibilities of success if I should go. He said that he was most anxious to see me off, both for the personal satisfaction which this gave him and because he thought it had important effects abroad as a visual demonstration of his support of my mission. Since he and Mrs. Truman are going to the theatre this evening, he would not be able to see us off at 10 O’clock. He suggested an 8-O’clock departure with everyone arriving at the field at 7:45 p.m. This has since been confirmed.
I also went over with the President the situation regarding the [Page 672] Intelligence Agencies and their concern at dropping from Article 6 guarantee against prosecution of Germans who cooperated with the Allies. I told him that we were doing all we could to get the best possible result but that I thought Mr. McCloy was in a most difficult situation and I did not believe that we should jeopardize conclusion of the whole arrangements by insisting on this point, if I believed that it could not be obtained.
The President agreed with this and said that he would support my judgment in the matter.3
- This item was one of five taken up with the President this day by the Secretary of State, the others being Korean negotiations, support for Senator Benton in his dispute with Senator McCarthy, Bolivian recognition, and approval of the message to the Dutch Government, p. 667. Copies of this memorandum were sent to Jessup, Riddleberger, Perkins, Armstrong, and Bruce.↩
- See footnote 3, p. 666.↩
- The President’s approval of Acheson’s suggestion that he leave immediately for Europe led to a series of hasty telephone calls from Bonbright to the British and Canadian Embassies informing them of the Secretary’s plans. In speaking to Bernard Burrows, Counselor of the British Embassy, Bonbright “referred to the message from Mr. Eden this morning urging the Secretary to come and I therefore asked Mr. Burrows to get word to Mr. Eden in Strasbourg as quickly as he could that the Secretary was complying with his request. He said he would do so.” Bonbright also telephoned the Embassy in France about the Secretary’s imminent arrival and asked that Achilles then in Strasbourg be informed and instructed to pass the information to Eden, Stikker, and Schuman, “with particular emphasis on the first two in view of their expressed wish that the Secretary arrive as soon as possible” (Memoranda of telephone conversations by Bonbright, May 22, 662A.00/5–2252).↩