Office of the Historian

868.20 Mission/9–748

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State1

secret
[Washington,] September 7, 1948.
Participants: Sir Oliver Franks, British Ambassador
The Secretary of State
Mr. John D. Hickerson, Director for European Affairs

Sir Oliver Franks, the British Ambassador, called by appointment made at his request at 11:20 this morning. He said that he had received a telegram expressing Mr. Bevin’s concern over the possibility, in view of recent favorable developments in Greece, of the withdrawal of the U.S. Military Mission in Greece.

The Ambassador said that Mr. Bevin feels that in spite of the gratifying developments of recent months in Greece, there will continue to be attacks on the Greek Government from within and without the country for a considerable period of time. Mr. Bevin believes that the steadying influence of the U.S. and British Military Missions present in the country will be essential for a considerable period of time. The Ambassador said that the British Government has been attacked from the Left Wing of the Labor Party about its Greek policy over a considerable period of time and that it would be practically impossible for the British Military Mission to continue in Greece if the U.S. Military Mission were withdrawn.

I told the Ambassador that with the continued military success of the Greek army against the guerrillas, it is our hope that by December it will be possible to begin a reduction of the Greek army looking to elimination of the necessity for further U.S. military appropriations. I added that we have no intention of withdrawing our Military Mission from Greece until the situation there is well stabilized. I went on to say that in my opinion this will not happen any time soon, certainly not in the next year.

I told the Ambassador that I wanted to make a final comment off the record. This was that if we find it necessary to withdraw our Military Mission from Greece, I fully expect that the U.S. Government will give the British Government more notice of this intention than Mr. Bevin gave me in February 1947 in regard to the necessity for the British Government to discontinue its support of Greece.

  1. Drafted by Mr. Hickerson; approved by the Secretary of State.↩