Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, General; the United Nations, Volume I

501.BC/4–2346

Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs (Hiss)

[Washington,] April 23, 1946.

I called Senator Vandenberg yesterday morning and said that in view of the fact that I understood he was leaving for Paris²² I wanted to talk to him about the questions relating to provision of armed forces which we had taken up with the Senator and with Senators Connally, Thomas and Austin earlier this month.²³ I said that we had not completed our discussions with the military authorities but that it looked as though they would find that the suggestion that the costs of operations being prorated among the members was too complicated to be worthwhile. I said also that they had felt that the proposed size of the U.S. land forces contingent could not be reduced below two divisions without raising serious questions as to command. The purpose was to have one corps which would include headquarters troops. The Senator wondered if we could list one combat division and one headquarters division or something of that sort. He said, humorously, that he was particularly interested in unit one. I said that the military had suggested calling it one corps without specifying its composition. He said he thought this would be preferable to specifying two divisions. He did not fully commit himself on this point but he gave the impression that he did not feel very strongly that the maximum would have to be one division.

I then said that the most important question and one which warranted my calling him when he must be busy getting ready to leave for Paris dealt with the sentence he wanted included with respect to regionalism. I told him that the changes in language which Senator Austin had suggested were agreeable to everyone but that there was a feeling that for us to spell out the regionalism approach quite so specifically as he had suggested would get us into trouble with other regions. I added that our military authorities felt that they could assure that the desires of the Senators in this respect, which the military fully share, could be made effective through our representation on the Military Staff Committee but that they feared that specification of the regionalism formula might enable other countries to exclude us from participation in other regions. The Senator indicated no adverse reaction to the points I made and then said that anything which was worked out which was satisfactory to Senator Austin would be satisfactory to him.²⁴

22. Senator Yandenberg was departing to join the United States Delegation at the Paris meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers; for documentation on that session, see vol. ii .
23. For the record of that meeting, see p. 771.
24. On June 24, Hiss discussed with Robert V. Shirley, clerk of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, clearance of Article 43 agreements with Senators Vandenberg and Connally in Paris. Mr. Shirley agreed with Mr. Hiss that under the circumstances only Senator Austin need be consulted. (Lot 55D323)