Secretary’s memoranda, lot 53 D 444
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Counselor of the Department of State (Bohlen)1
Subject: European Army and French Military Budget
| Participants: | Mr. Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister |
| Mr. Henri Bonnet, French Ambassador | |
| The Secretary of State | |
| Mr. Charles E. Bohlen |
European Army
After dinner on September 6, Mr. Schuman, in discussing the question of the European Army stated that it was his intention to work for a simplification of immediate procedures in order to reduce any delay in beginning the actual steps for a German military contribution. Specifically what he had in mind was to shortcut the long and involved process of establishing a common Ministry of Defense and the institutions necessary for the political framework of the European Army by perhaps recommending that in the interim period SHAPE should assume the responsibility for recruiting Germans into a European [Page 882] Army without waiting for the entire structure to be completed. He felt that if SHAPE was in charge this would prevent the danger of the beginning of a German national army by getting on with the work without waiting for all the involved matters of a political and an administrative nature to be settled. He emphasized several times that the chief French pre-occupation was to prevent the beginning of German armed forces without some direct international supervision and control since they were convinced that once a German armed force began to come into being, if it was on purely national lines, it would continue along those lines and end in a German national army.
Mr. Schuman was particularly appreciative of the support which General Eisenhower had given to the European Army concept, which he said made a great impression upon the British.
The Secretary outlined to Mr. Schuman how vitally important it was from the point of view of Congressional approval of future aid to be able next winter and spring to demonstrate to the Congress that a serious beginning had been made in bringing in a German contribution. Without that he said it was increasingly difficult to convince the Congress that the appropriations for aid to Europe for its own defense would really be able to achieve its objective since it was visible to all that a German contribution was essential to success.
French Military Budget
Both Mr. Schuman and Ambassador Bonnet emphasized the very serious budgetary problem the French would have in next year’s military appropriations which would be almost doubled compared to this year—from about 840 billion francs to 1500 billion. They said there was no serious deficit this year but that there would be a very wide gap in the 1952 budget because of this great expansion of military expenditures under the agreed programs.2
- Secretary Acheson and Foreign Minister Schuman and their advisers were in San Francisco in connection with the signing of the Treaty of Peace with Japan on September 8, 1951. For documentation on the treaty, see vol. vi, Part 1, pp. 777 ff.↩
- For additional materials regarding the concern of the United States with France’s economic problems, see volume iv.↩