No. 195
740.5/11–2951: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Department of State 1
secret
Rome, November 29, 1951—4 p.m.
Secto 111. Copy urgently to Treasury, Defense and ECA.
- 1.
- Schuman and Mayer have pressed us strongly since our recent talk in Paris with Pleven and members of his Cabinet to agree to their making reference in coming political and econ debates before French Parliament to assurance given to them during talk. Ref USDel Secto 94, Nov 27, 1951. After further conversations in Rome, Snyder, Lovett, Bruce, Wood and myself have informed Mayer of our agreement subject to self-explanatory letter from Amb Bruce and attached statement quoted below.
- 2.
- Begin verbatim text. I would agree that a statement along the following lines wld represent an accurate description of the present state of the negotiations between our two governments on United States assistance and on the undertakings of your govt which are to be a condition of that assistance. You, of course, understand that the attached statement merely represents my view of what you might wish to inform your Parliament and does not affect in any way the position of the US Govt as stated or to be stated by the US negotiating team in Paris. End verbatim text.
- 3.
- Begin verbatim text of attached statement. During the past ten days in Paris and in Rome, I have had a number of discussions with the Amer Cabinet Mins and officials responsible for the Mil Assistance Program—The Secy of State, the Secy of the Treas, the Secy of Defense and the Director of the Mutual Security Agency. In these conversations I have recd an assurance from them that the US Govt will undertake in consideration of an adequate French mil effort and other considerations to achieve a total expenditure of $600 million in France in the US fiscal year from July 1, 1951 to July 1, 1952. This will obviously be of assistance in connection with France’s import requirements necessary for its defense effort. This total of $600 million will be made up of econ assistance, purchases by the US Defense Dept of milit production in France, and expenditures by the US Army, Air and Naval Forces for bases and milit construction in France and the French Union and provisioning of US Forces stationed in France. The agreed measures necessary to be taken by France and the US to facilitate the use of these funds by speeding construction of bases and other activities in the common defense effort are now being worked out. Our own milit program and defense budget are being defined and related to this level of expected dollar receipts and they will only be finally determined when TCC has completed its exercise. Bilateral conversations are now under way in Paris to reach definitive agreements [Page 453] between the two govts on these questions. A definite breakdown of the dollar expenditures is not now available but I can say that the assurance recd by us will permit the govt to restore certain of the serious reductions in essential basic imports that I had to propose last week. End verbatim text.
Acheson
- Repeated to Paris and to London for Spofford.↩