Office of the Historian

460.509/7–2051: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Embassy in France 1

secret
priority
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Washington, July 20, 1951—8 p. m.

498. Excon for Linder. ReEmbs 438 July 202 and Bern’s 115 July 20 [Page 1157] rptd Paris as 24.3 Dept. considers Linder should proceed to Bern as planned. We believe Legation Bern has misunderstood Deptel 439 rptd Bern 125.4 Essential points we were trying to make in Deptel were (1) that we did not believe we should attempt to justify to other agencies a licensing procedure for Switz, which would in practice be more lenient than present licensing procedure with respect COCOM countries and (2) that our concept of negotiation with Swiss is not that we are engaged in making a “deal” with them whereby for taking action which we believe is in their own interest i.e. embargo action on International List I, we reward them by issuing license. We do not see any reason why we should license freely International List I items not embargoed by Swiss because of fact that they have embargoed certain other List I items.

We think Swiss have in fact agreed to do much more than we had anticipated and we believe Linder should on his return to Bern express gratification that Swiss are ready to take this action. In accordance already agreed licensing procedures he can of course also inform them that licenses for goods which Swiss have embargoed will be licensed freely. So far as other List I items are concerned we believe he should continue to express disappointment that Swiss have not agreed to embargo and simply indicate that the US will have to continue to review licenses for these items in light of all the facts. Question of degree of leniency in licensing these items can best be discussed with other agencies by Linder on his return. If Swiss indicate they can not go further Linder should reiterate appreciation significant progress made and depart.

Foregoing discussed informally with Anderson (Commerce) who strongly concurs.

Acheson
  1. Drafted by Camp and cleared with Peterson, Moline, and Anderson of Commerce; repeated to Bern.↩
  2. Not printed; it stated that Linder’s proposed trip had the approval of the British and French who were satisfied that it would foster the multilateral approach. (460.509/7–2051)↩
  3. Supra.↩
  4. Dated July 19, p. 1154.↩