711.62/234: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 28—8:43 p.m.]
380. Last night Bonnet asked me to call on him so that he might show me a telegram which he had just received from Coulondre, French Ambassador in Berlin, in which the French Ambassador expressed the opinion in strong terms that the United States should send the American Ambassador back to Berlin at once.47 I read the telegram in Bonnet’s office this evening.
Incidentally it gave a clear idea of the intense effort the French Government is making to reach an understanding with Germany. Coulondre said that he was doing his best to improve relations and that the atmosphere at the present moment was good. He also stated: “As you know the British Government has been redoubling its efforts recently to reach an understanding with Germany”.
Coulondre went on to say that the American Embassy had been cooperating in the effort to achieve understanding between Germany, France, and England and that he felt the death of Chargé d’Affaires left a hole in the ranks of the democracies in Berlin which should be filled as soon as possible by the return of the Ambassador. It was his opinion that the chance of understanding between Germany, France, and England would be greatly increased if there should be an American Ambassador in Berlin working for reconciliation.
[Page 26]Bonnet said that he was not so sure this evening as he had been last night that Coulondre was right. It was most valuable to France and England in their efforts to achieve reconciliation with Germany to have the United States as an unreconciled potential threat in the background. The comparatively conciliatory line which the Germans were taking was in his opinion due to the fact that they were afraid of the United States.
It would certainly be valuable to have an American Ambassador in Berlin cooperating closely with Coulondre and Nevile Henderson, but this might be less valuable than the position which it was now possible for the French and British to take in Berlin; to wit: that they were much more reasonable in their attitude toward Germany than the Government of the United States. After thinking it over he was therefore of the opinion that from the point of view of reconciliation it might be advisable not to have the American Ambassador return to Berlin until after the crisis which he anticipated would arise from Italian demands after the election of the Pope.
I replied that from his point of view there appeared to be much to be said on both sides of the question; and that the Government of the United States had its own point of view.
- For instruction to Ambassador Wilson to return to Washington for consultation, see telegram No. 201, November 14, 1938, 2 p.m., Foreign Relations, 1938, vol. ii, p. 398. The Ambassador did not return to Germany.↩