890D.01/5–2645: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France ( Caffery )50
2331. Unless you perceive strong reasons for withholding action, I wish you to present the following note to the French Government:51
“I have been instructed by my Government to convey to the Government of France the deep concern which my Government feels with regard to recent developments in Syria and Lebanon.
An impression has been created in the United States and elsewhere that French representatives have been using the threat of force to obtain from Syria and Lebanon concessions of a political, cultural, and military nature. It is understood that, at a time when the French Delegate General to the Levant States was presenting to the Governments of Syria and Lebanon proposals which, if accepted, would give France a special position in those countries, a French warship was landing fresh armed forces in Beirut.
Syria and Lebanon are recognized by France and the United States as independent countries. They are also members of the United Nations whose representatives, including representatives of France and of the United States, are now discussing in San Francisco means for guaranteeing world security and for combating aggression.
It is important, at the very time when the International Security Organization is in process of being created at San Francisco, that in order to inspire confidence in its future effectiveness all nations, both great and small, refrain from any act which might give rise to a suspicion—however unjustified—that a member of the future organization may be pursuing a policy not in conformity with the spirit and principles which that organization is being established to defend.
The United States places a great value upon the historic friendship which, since its founding, has bound it to France. It considers that France and the United States which share the inheritance of a common democratic past have a particular responsibility for the vitality and influence of the democratic tradition, and that the extent to which that tradition will continue to influence the course of history depends upon the manner in which the great nations which are its exponents make use of their position and their power and upon their willingness to cooperate with one another.
The Government of the United States, therefore, in a most friendly spirit earnestly urges the Government of France carefully to review its policy toward Syria and Lebanon with the purpose of finding a way to make it clear to those countries and to all the world that, in its dealings with the Levant States, France intends to treat them as fully sovereign and independent members of the family of nations.”