Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, Korea, Volume VII

795.00/7–1350

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State

top secret

[Washington,] July 13, 1950.

Subject: Secretary’s Message to Bevin

Participants:	Sir Oliver Franks, British Ambassador;
	Secretary of State Acheson;
	and Mr. George W. Perkins, Assistant Secretary.

Sir Oliver stated that Mr. Bevin had received my message through Lew Douglas¹ and was appreciative of the full and frank exposition of our views. He said they will study the message and will reply later. In connection with this Sir Oliver stated that apparently Mr. Bevin had been disturbed about the phrase “serious consequences” which Ambassador Douglas had used in the supplementary presentation of my message.² I assured Sir Oliver that what we intended to convey was that we regarded most seriously the possibilities of our policies drifting apart, and that there was no other meaning intended. Sir Oliver said he was sure of this, but that he wanted to reassure Mr. Bevin who was apparently disturbed.

Sir Oliver handed me a copy of the message from Sir David Kelly to Mr. Bevin reporting on his conversation of July 11 with Mr. Gromyko (copy attached).³

Dean Acheson

1. See telegram 132, July 10, 5 p. m., to London, p. 347.
2. See telegram 133, July 10, 5 p. m., to London, p. 351.
3. Not printed; for a summary of the contents, see telegram 99, from Moscow, received at 2:26 p. m. on July 11, p. 360, and also British Cmd. 8078, p. 28.