Madrid Embassy Files: Lot
55F124
312SC/350SC Spain: Circular airgram
The Secretary of State to Certain Diplomatic Mission 1
For Chief of Mission
Views on Spanish Participation in the North Atlantic Pact
During a recent call at the Department the Chargé of the Spanish Embassy here expressed Spain’s desire to cooperate with the US and indicated his hope that the necessity of Spanish cooperation would soon lead other countries to relax their attitude toward Spain. He also indicated his hope that Spain could one day participate in the North Atlantic pact. We informed the Spanish official that this was a difficult problem and that Spanish participation in the pact was politically impossible at this time. In this connection we inquired of the Spanish official when we might expect steps in the direction of political liberalization in Spain. He replied that this was a matter which was proceeding slowly and said he hoped that an early normalization of diplomatic relations with Spain would be possible since he believed it would encourage further steps in Spain’s political evolution.
- The source text does not indicate to what other missions the circular airgram was sent.↩