501.AD/12–246
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs (Hiss)
Subject: Availability of the Presidio Site as United Nations Headquarters
| Participants: | Under Secretary Acheson |
| Senator Austin |
At 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 30, Mr. Acheson called Senator Austin by telephone and said that he was calling about the above matter which the Senator had raised with Mr. Acheson on Thanksgiving Day.
Mr. Acheson said that the matter had been discussed at the Cabinet meeting and the President had decided that he would do all in his power to make the Presidio available to the United Nations if they should desire to select it for the site of their permanent headquarters. Mr. Acheson went on to point out that there are legal difficulties involved and that these had been discussed at the Cabinet meeting. In order to make the site available by executive action it would have to be declared surplus. The site is probably not surplus as the Army would have to replace it with other quarters. The Attorney General is, therefore, inclined to the view that Congressional approval will be [Page 111] necessary and the President is planning to talk to leaders of Congress about the matter.
Mr. Acheson said that he believed in the light of the President’s decision, he is authorized to say that the President will use his best efforts and that the matter will probably require Congressional approval which the President believes will be forthcoming. The President would like to have us reserve the potential rights of Congress in this matter in connection with anything we may say. He, of course, does not wish to do anything he does not have clear authority to do. The President did not decide whether the site should be made available as a gift to the United Nations or by way of sale to the United Nations. He felt that the important immediate question was merely that of making it available to the United Nations. Mr. Acheson said that his own personal preference would be not to be in the position of trying to sell the United Nations anything.60
Mr. Acheson went on to say that at the next stage of consideration of this matter by the Assembly, i.e., after the report of the Subcommittee which has inspected various sites, it may be wise for us not to express any preference as between the Presidio and Philadelphia. But this, Mr. Acheson said, is a matter which is up to Senator Austin.
(Mr. Acheson authorized Mr. Hiss to forward to Senator Austin for the latter’s personal use a copy of the informal tentative memorandum given by the Attorney General to the President on the above subject.)61
- In a record made of the same telephone conversation at the Delegation headquarters in New York City on the same date the memorandum read at this point: “Mr. Acheson said that they had not reached any very clear-cut decision in the Cabinet yesterday in the matter whether The Presidio should be made available on a gift or sale basis. He said he had argued strongly in favor of an outright gift and he thought the other members of the Cabinet inclined equally to this view.” (IO Files, document US/A/Site/7)↩
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At a meeting of United States Delegation on December 3 Senator Austin reported that he had informed the Headquarters Sub-Committee on December 2 of the availability of The Presidio, carefully reserving the powers of the United States Congress in the matter (IO Files, Minutes of the 33rd Meeting of the Delegation, December 3, document US/A/M (Chr.)/31) (the record of Senator Austin’s statement to the Sub-Committee is found in the Sub-Committee’s report, GA (I/2), Headquarters Committee, p. 174, annex 7).
On the same day (December 2) Senator Austin had made the United States position with respect to The Presidio a matter of public record in a morning press statement (U.S. Delegation Press Release No. 88) followed by an afternoon press statement in clarification of the earlier one (U.S. Delegation Press Release No. 90). In the first press release Senator Austin stated in pertinent part “that I am able to report that the Executive Branch of the Government of the United States would do everything in its power in cooperation with the Congress to make the Presidio available to the United Nations”; he went on to emphasize the constitutional position of the Congress in the matter (IO Files, United States Delegation Press Releases (1946), No. 88). Senator Austin in his second statement emphasized that the purport of the first statement constituted a “commitment and it represents an international act between the United States and the United Nations. … I am not going to try to commit the Congress in advance, but it would be a rather surprising situation if the Congress should undertake to repudiate a position taken by the Chief Executive in an international matter of the highest importance as this”. (IO Files, United States Delegation Press Releases (1946), No. 90)
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