853B.7962/3–1447

The Acting Director of the Office of European Affairs (Hickerson) to the Under Secretary of State (Acheson)

secret

You will recall that last June we completed an agreement2 with the Portuguese by which ATC could continue to operate through the Azores using the field at Lagens. That agreement was for 18 months and will expire December 2, 1947. The Azores are vital to our lines of communication with Germany and for that reason a new accord or an extension of the present one is required. If negotiations are to be undertaken, they should be started well in advance of the date the present agreement expires. The Army is anxious to have these discussions opened about the middle of May. Paul Culbertson3 has done the previous negotiations and it is my thought that he would go to Lisbon on his way to Madrid, arriving in Lisbon about the middle of May. We would like to ask the War Department to assign General Kissner to assist in these negotiations. Before we get any deeper into our discussions with the War Department I would like to have your approval for going ahead with these negotiations.

John D. Hickerson
  1. See telegram 480, May 30, 1946, from Lisbon, Foreign Relations, 1946, vol. v, p. 996.
  2. Paul T. Culbertson was assigned to the Embassy in Spain where, on April 15, 1947, he became First Secretary.