Office of the Historian
No. 252

765.00/2–1551: Telegram

The Ambassador in Italy (Dunn) to the Secretary of State 1

secret
Rome, February 15, 1951—9 p.m.

3569. Although at request of Foreign Office Perkins2 had arranged call on Sforza (your telegram 3572, February 143) latter did not return Rome this morning and Perkins made courtesy calls on Brusasca and Zoppi. Perkins told them his conversations in Belgrade [Page 572] had been of very general nature4 and question of Trieste5 had not been raised in any way.

Zoppi said Yugoslavia had been discussed with French at Santa Margherita with agreement by both delegations that appropriate aid, particularly economic, should be given but that acceptance of military would be harmful to Tito’s position. Agreement also reached on Algerian iron ore making possible conclusion of Schuman Plan treaty. On European army De Gasperi repeated Italian position of agreement in principle provided development of integrated forces under NATO was not held up. Fuller report on Santa Margherita conference will follow.6

Dunn
  1. Repeated to Paris, London, and Frankfurt for McCloy.↩
  2. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs George W. Perkins visited Rome during a tour of several major European capitals following his attendance at the Ambassadorial conferences in Paris and Frankfurt. Perkins served as chairman of the conference of Eastern European Chiefs of Mission in Paris, January 30–February 2, and then chaired the conference of Ambassadors of Western European countries held in Frankfurt, February 5–7. Ambassador Dunn did not attend the conference of Western European Ambassadors and Italy was not discussed during the proceedings. For documentation on the meeting of the Western European Ambassadors in Frankfurt, see Documents 74 ff.; regarding the meeting of the Chiefs of Mission of the Eastern European countries, see Document 610.↩
  3. Telegram 3572 requested that Perkins hold an informal discussion with Sforza or Zoppi during his visit to Rome in order to satisfy the desire of the Italian Government to discuss U.S. policy toward Yugoslavia. (665.68/2–1451)↩
  4. For a summary of Perkins’ conversations with Tito, see telegram 1101 from Belgrade, Document 861.↩
  5. For documentation concerning U.S. policy toward the Free Territory of Trieste, see Documents 84 ff.↩
  6. For a summary of the Santa Margherita conference, which was held February 12–14, see telegrams 3627 and 3929 from Rome, Documents 254 and 261.↩