765.00/5–1051: Telegram
The Ambassador in Italy (Dunn) to the Secretary of State
5047. We have considered recommending to Dept statement by Secretary which would be vote of US confidence in govt and meet informally expressed Ital desire for commitment by US that relations with Italy governed by NAT rather than peace treaty. Such statement might have been extremely useful at this stage of election campaign here. On balance, however, we recommend against any such statement. Reasons are: (1) limitations on commitments we can make on peace treaty imposed by continuation of Paris talks; (2) Italy’s relations with US have not yet been introduced into campaign and we doubt whether they will except in routine Communist charges of subservience to “American imperialism”; (3) Communists for obvious reasons do not attack govt for failure obtain peace treaty revision; (4) anything short of concrete performance by US would be attacked by Communists against background of continuous accusation that March 20 statement merely “electoral trick”; (5) such statement would chiefly be useful in aiding govt to defend self against right and, currency of “statements” being somewhat depreciated, anything short of specific commitment for early performance would not be successful in drawing to govt parties [Page 606] support of Nationalist Rightist opposition now critical of Sforza’s “failures”; (6) although campaign not yet in high gear, it seems to be going well and prospects for democratic parties in relation to Communists are, barring unforeseen developments, good; (7) Ital interest in such statement is perhaps motivated more by desire to obtain commitment on peace treaty than by conviction of necessity of statement for electoral purposes.1
- Although Dunn’s advice was initially accepted, a meeting between the Secretary of State and the Italian Ambassador was subsequently arranged for May 18 after which a statement was released to the press. Regarding the meeting and the press release, see the memorandum of conversation, Document 276.↩