Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, The Near East and Africa, Volume V

780.5/12–1951: Telegram

The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Cumming) to the Department of State ¹

secret
niact

Moscow, December 19, 1951—3 p. m.

1048. Re mytel 1041 Dec 18² rptd London 168, Paris 404, and Ankara 20. At 1:30 p. m. handed Gromyko note re MEC.³ After reading note carefully he said his preliminary observations were as fols:

Impossible for Sov Govt to agree with contents note: Sov position clearly expressed in notes given to US and other three govts concerned with establishment MEC and this position connected with aggressive policies pursued NATO and the US Govt; the allegations contained in my note were without foundation. I called his careful attention to statements “there has been no aggression whatsoever originating from countries members of NATO and MEC. There will not be any”. Gromyko answered that there were other allegations in note which were “inaccurate and out of place” and had no bearing on the issues involved.

Gromyko made his remarks in calm quiet tone without any undue emphasis or heat.

Cumming

1. Repeated niact to London, Paris, and Ankara.
2. Not printed; it reported the arrangements made between senior officials of the United States, United Kingdom, French, and Turkish Embassies and the Soviet Foreign Office to deliver and receive the notes replying to the Soviet Note of November 24 concerning the MEC.
3. The text of the U.S. reply to the Soviet Note of November 24 was sent to Moscow in telegram 409, niact of December 13 (780.5/12–1351). The reply was subsequently made public and is printed, along with the British Note of the same date, in Documents (R.I.I.A.) for 1951, pp. 433–436, and also in the Department of State Bulletin, December 31, 1951, pp. 1055–1056.