Editorial Note
Secretary of State Acheson held a press and radio news conference aboard the SS Independence in New York harbor on his return to the United States on the afternoon of December 12. The Secretary reviewed in general terms the course of his discussions in Paris and Rome during his 6-week visit in Western Europe. In the course of his review of the discussions at the Rome session of the North Atlantic Council, the Secretary commented as follows about the prospects for the European Defense Community:
“We have been dealing chiefly with the matters of the European Defense Force. You know that after the meeting in Rome there was convened a meeting of the six Foreign Ministers in Strasbourg where decisions were made, and I am not familiar with the details of those decisions, since I have been on this ship. But, from the talks which I had with all of those Ministers before they met, and from the very meager reports which I have been able to get on the ship, I feel certain that important and helpful decisions have been made, and that when they meet again on the 27th of December we will be much further [Page 963] along with the European Defense Force, which includes in it a fair and important contribution by Germany to its own defense and to the defense of Western Europe.”
Later, in answer to a question as to when the first German soldier would become a part of NATO forces under General Eisenhower, the Secretary commented as follows:
“Well, I can’t answer that question. That all depends on the progress which is going to be made this month in the discussions on the European Defense Force. As I said, the Ministers had their meeting two or three days ago. They are having another meeting on the 27th. We should hope that the whole matter could be worked out in time for NATO to put its approval on it, on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th [of February 1952] during our meeting [at Lisbon], and that we can then get to work. I wouldn’t want to predict when the first German will be in the European Army, but we hope it will be soon. We believe it is vitally important. We believe it can succeed, and we believe it is going to succeed.”
Still later in the conference, the Secretary expressed his conviction of the importance of the Rome session of the NATO Council in resolving problems of the European Defense Community:
“I think also in regard to the European Defense Force that the meeting in Rome gave the Foreign Ministers a chance to express problems which they had in their mind, raised the principal unsettled questions, aired different views, and gave a general line on the path which can be taken to solve these questions. In that way it was absolutely essential. If it had not been for that meeting, we could have not been about to make the progress which I am sure we are going to make. In that sense I meant it was productive.”
The full text of the Secretary’s press conference is included in file 110.11/12–1251.