Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, General; the United Nations, Volume I, Part 1

501.AA/4–1448: Telegram

The Ambassador in France (Caffery) to the Secretary of State

secret
us urgent

Paris, April 1, 1948—9 p. m.

1706. Following Bidault’s agreement to go along with US in opposing the admission to UN of all Soviet satellites except Finland and his statement that appropriate instructions would be sent to the French representative at Lake Success (my 1607, March 25) I was informed on March 30 that there had been a modification in the French position and that an instruction had been sent to Parodi to oppose Bulgaria’s admission but only to abstain in the case of the other satellites.

I called on Bidault subsequently and told him that in view of his previous assurances I failed to understand the reasons for a change in the French position. He replied with great embarrassment stating that subsequent to our conversation he had re-examined the question and had modified his views because 1) in view of fact that French had previously supported all satellite applications except Bulgaria a complete reversal of their original position would appear “illogical”; 2) he believed that French abstention would be just as effective from US point of view as a direct vote against.

I replied that I could not agree with him and that in my opinion it was illogical of the French to oppose Bulgaria’s admission because Petkof had been hanged and to take a different position in regard to the other satellite states which had similar regimes, which had committed similar atrocities to the Petkof hanging and were all puppets of Moscow. I expressed the hope he would stand by his March 24 statement to me.

Bidault promised to look into the matter again but he did not repeat his earlier assurances.¹

Caffery

1. In telegram 1711, April 2, 3 p. m., Ambassador Caffery reported: “Bidault sent me word last night that he had decided to go along with us on opposing the admission to UN of all Soviet satellites except Finland (mytel 1706, April 1) and that instructions in this sense would be sent to Parodi [Alexandre Parodi, Permanent Representative of France at the United Nations] today.” (501.AA/4–248)