740.00119 E. W./6–2545
No. 637
Memorandum by the Acting Secretary of State
Memorandum of Conversation
Subject: United States–French Relations
| Participants: | The French Ambassador, Mr. Henri Bonnet; |
| Acting Secretary, Mr. Grew. |
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The Ambassador then said that while he had no instruction from his Government he wished in his capacity as Ambassador responsible for the good relations between our two countries to express to me his concern at the present unfortunate trend of these relations. He said that it was the earnest desire of General de Gaulle and, as I well knew, of himself to bring France and the United States steadily closer together and he felt that the present trend is unfortunately in the other direction. This arises from a number of issues in which France has been given little satisfaction and public opinion in his country, knowing of these issues, is at present developing in a way not conducive to the improvement of our relations.
The Ambassador said, first, that there was the unfortunate situation in the Levant in which we are supporting the British position. I interrupted to say that our attitude was based in no respect on the British position but that we were following our own view of the [Page 962] matter and that the Ambassador knows very well what that view is, namely, our desire to see an end to the disturbances in Syria and Lebanon. The Ambassador assented to this observation.
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- For other extracts from this memorandum, see documents Nos. 99, 357, and 616.↩