Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, General: Economic and Political Matters, Volume I, Part 1

Secretary’s Letters, lot 56 D 459, “President”

Memorandum for the President, by the Secretary of State¹

[Washington,] January 12, 1953.

In reply to your memorandum of December 31, 1952, requesting a brief report on what has been done by the Department of State to facilitate an orderly transition to the incoming Administration, I should like to report that the following steps have been taken:

General Liaison Arrangements—Shortly after the appointment of Senator Lodge as the general liaison officer for the new Administration, Mr. Bruce met with Senator Lodge and informed him that the Department was ready to place all necessary information at his disposal. Subsequently, there have been frequent exchanges of information between Senator Lodge and Departmental representatives on general liaison problems, and I am confident that we have made every effort to make his liaison task an easy one.

Mr. Dulles—Upon the designation of Mr. Dulles as the Secretary of State in the new Administration, I wrote to Mr. Dulles assuring him that all of us in the Department of State stood ready to help him in any way that we could to assure the smoothest possible transition. Accordingly, Mr. Dulles was provided with an office in the Department and all Departmental officials were placed at his disposal for consultation and assistance. I have had two meetings with the Secretary-designate at which we discussed Departmental administrative questions and some of the more critical foreign problems facing the country. Mr. Dulles has met Under Secretary Bruce on several occasions to discuss administrative and top level personnel problems and has also consulted the Director of the Executive Secretariat about the organization and operation of the Office of the Secretary. The two Deputy Under Secretaries, the three Assistant Secretaries responsible for European, Far Eastern, and United Nations Affairs, and the Director of the Bureau of German Affairs have talked with Mr. Dulles. At his request, he has received the advice of these and other Departmental officials on such specific questions as the loyalty of United States citizens employed by the United Nations Secretariat, Stalin’s reply to the Reston question, the New Year’s message from General Eisenhower to General Ridgway, et cetera.² In addition, Mr. Dulles has obtained oral briefings from United States Ambassadors to France, Iran, and Pakistan who were back in the Department for consultation and who, therefore, were available to explain the latest developments in their respective countries.

Other Appointees—In my letter to Mr. Dulles I also told him that when the new top Departmental officials had been named, we would be glad to have them come to the Department and sit in with Departmental officials to discuss problems that would later come under their jurisdiction. The personnel and facilities of the Department have been placed at the disposal of the recent appointees: Messrs. Lourie, McCardle, Morton, and Phleger. Each has either received or will soon receive both oral and written briefing on the organization and procedures of the Department and on the problems in the area for which he is to be responsible. With the announcement that Senator Lodge would replace Ambassador Austin as the United States Representative to the United Nations, meetings on United Nations problems were arranged for the Senator with Ambassadors Austin and Gross, the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Administration, and the Assistant Secretary for United Nations Affairs.

Briefing Material—In order that the incoming Departmental officers might be fully informed about the immediate problems, as well as the longer-range problems which they would face, briefing materials were prepared for their use. The Department’s Executive Secretariat compiled two comprehensive briefing books for the Secretary-designate and the Under Secretary-designate: one, a General Briefing Book, contained information on the organization of the Department, the operation of the Office of the Secretary and Under Secretary, major programs, relations with other Government agencies, and legislative and budgetary reviews; the other, a Policy Briefing Book, contained statements of current United States policies, broken down on a geographical area, functional, and organizational basis. The General Briefing Book is being provided to all incoming Assistant Secretaries, and policy briefing books are being prepared on an individual basis to inform new officers of the current policies in their areas.³ At the request of General Eisenhower’s representatives, briefing material on Korea was prepared for General Eisenhower’s trip to Korea last month and on United States–United Kingdom problems for Mr. Churchill’s visit to this country.

I feel that the above arrangements have been most successful in meeting the needs of the incoming Administration and that we have been helpful in every way possible to Mr. Dulles and the other representatives of the next Administration who will assume responsibility for the operation of the Department of State.

Dean Acheson

1. Drafted by Christopher Van Hollen of S/S on Jan. 9. A notation on the source text indicates this memorandum was sent to the White House on Jan. 12.
2. In December 1952, James Reston of the New York Times submitted four questions to Soviet Premier Josef Stalin concerning the possible easing of international tensions and termination of the Korean war. Reston’s queries and Stalin’s replies are printed in the New York Times, Dec. 26, 1952, pp. 6–7. For documentation on the interest of the Department of State in having President-elect Eisenhower express interest in early ratification of the treaty establishing a European Defense Community, possibly through the medium of a New Year’s telegram to General Ridgway, see vol. v, Part 1, pp. 571 ff.
3. The briefing books under reference have not been found.