Office of the Historian

840.50 Recovery/10–1848: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy in France

secret
Washington, October 28, 1948—10 p. m.

4208. For Harriman from State and ECA.1 Bonesteel2 refers to recent approaches by Hall-Patch to Harriman and by Makins to Finletter on problem of correlation Western Union rearmament with ERP (Dept of Army tel MA659 from Paris Oct. 183). Only report on economic impact of rearmament received here is account of discussion of Brit rearmament program with Plowden4 by Douglas and Finletter (London Embtel 4315 Sept 293). Current Brit thinking on this subject and your views would be helpful in our consideration of problem.

Lovett
  1. Repeated to London for Douglas and Finletter as 4127.↩
  2. Lt. Col. Charles H. Bonesteel, 3d, Executive Director of the European Coordinating Committee of the Defense Assistance Program.↩
  3. Not printed.↩
  4. Sir Edwin Noel Plowden, Chief Planning Officer and Chairman of the British Economic Planning Board.↩
  5. Not printed.↩