Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, Western Europe, Volume III

740.5/10–650: Telegram

The Ambassador in Belgium (Murphy) to the Secretary of State

priority

Brussels, October 6, 1950—6 p. m.

537. Yesterday Spaak said he felt that Western Europeans would more eagerly improve their defense effort if some outstanding person was appointed supreme commander of NATO armed forces with very large powers for their employ. Spaak did not feel that our more cautious proposal first to appoint chief of general staff and eventually supreme commander was calculated arouse much enthusiasm in Europe.

Spaak said that clearly Eisenhower¹ was man most qualified for task of supreme commander. He qualified Eisenhower as being in same category with Churchill and Marshal Smuts² as the three most impressive great men he had met. He thought Eisenhower’s name alone would do much in stimulating willingness supply more, and more effective, divisions.

Murphy

1. General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of Columbia University.
2. Winston S. Churchill and Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, Commander in Chief of South African defense forces, 1940–1949.