Office of the Historian

740.5/2–2252

Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Perkins) to the Secretary of State 1
secret
[Lisbon,] February 22, 1952.

Subject:

  • NATO Reorganization

It is reported that Snyder and Bradley have some reservations about the current U.S. position on the new NATO organization.

Bradley is reported to question a change made in the U.S. draft of an unagreed paragraph,2 as the result of a Harriman, Draper, Monnet, Spofford meeting,3 which would authorize the Secretary General to have direct access to governments, NATO agencies, and major NATO Commands. Access to Commands may tend to short-circuit the Standing Group. On the other hand, for a Mike Pearson to have to contact Eisenhower solely through or with the permission of the Standing [Page 192] Group does not make operating sense. No line of authority is involved; it is entirely a matter of information.

Snyder is reported to doubt in general the wisdom of giving the Secretary General and his staff too strong a position. The main points at issue are the direct access language referred to above, and making the Secretary General also Permanent Vice Chairman of the Council.

Harriman favors a strong organization as essential to continue TCC type of approach.

I concur with his objective. The man is probably more important than the language of his terms of reference. And present troubles with the latter may largely disappear once an acceptable name has been found.

  1. A checkmark on the source text appears to indicate that the Secretary of State saw this memorandum.↩
  2. The reference here appears to be to the Council Deputies draft report on the reorganization of NATO which was subsequently adopted by the North Atlantic Council as document C9–D/4 (Revise), Feb. 29, p. 198.↩
  3. There are no other materials in the Department of State files regarding such a meeting.↩