840.20/3–3049
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Ambassador in Portugal (MacVeagh)1
The Spanish Ambassador2 called on me yesterday for the expressed purpose of telling me about recent Spanish-Portuguese conversations which have delayed the Portuguese answer to our invitation to adhere to the Atlantic Pact. He said that it appeared to his Government that the negotiations, so far as Portugal is concerned, had been rushed through very fast, and that some time should be given to considering the implications of the Pact as regards Portugal’s relations with Spain and the position of the Iberian Peninsula as a whole in connection with the defense of the West, which the Pact is designed to serve. He said that for this reason his Government had requested conversations with the Portuguese Government under the provisions of the Protocol of 1940 to the Luso-Spanish Treaty of Friendship and Non-Aggression. During these conversations, in which he represented his Government, he had stressed the point of view that even with the adherence of Portugal the Atlantic Pact must remain weak unless something is [Page 255] done to bring the rest of the Peninsula into the defense system. He understood the attitude of the American Government that the adherence of Portugal might constitute a helpful step towards the eventual inclusion of Spain, but he emphasized that such inclusion can hardly be possible for many years because of the provision of the Treaty that acceptance of an additional party must be unanimous, and the fact that there are some nations presently included which have powerful socialist influences likely to affect their actions for a long time to come. Under these circumstances, he said, he had suggested that while Portugal’s adherence to the Treaty might be a good thing so far as it goes, some arrangement should be made as soon as possible, outside the framework of the Treaty but in keeping with its spirit, to bring Spain into the general picture. In this connection he mentioned the possibility of perhaps getting the United States to adhere in some way to the existing Iberian Pact, and argued that in any case the strategic necessities of the defense of Western Europe called for some kind of arrangement whereby Spanish capabilities for holding the Peninsula could be re-inforced. During the course of his remarks, the Ambassador repeatedly asserted that his Government had not made any attempt to prevent Portugal from joining the Pact, and that rumors alleging that it had threatened to denounce the Luso-Spanish Treaty of Friendship should Portugal insist on signing, were false. What his Government wanted to do, he said, was merely to point out once more the importance of Spain in the problem which the Atlantic Pact is designed to solve, and to suggest that this importance be now recognized and dealt with promptly, for the sake of all concerned, without waiting for any highly problematic future when it might be politically possible for Spain to become a member of the Atlantic Treaty group.