740.5/3–3054
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Special Assistant to the Counselor of the Department of State (Galloway)
Subject:
- Consultations on Atomic Weapons
Participants:
- Mr. Jean Daridan, French Minister
- Mr. Douglas MacArthur II, Counselor, Department of State
- Mr. W. J. Galloway, Special Assistant to the Counselor
At his request, Mr. Daridan came in to see Mr. MacArthur this morning. Mr. Daridan said he understood there was a possibility that the question of atomic weapons might be one of the topics to be discussed at the forthcoming NATO meeting. Presumably this would be further discussion of those aspects of the matter raised at the last NATO meeting.1 Mr. Daridan said that the French Government had no objection to such a discussion taking place at the NATO meeting and assumed that since the primary responsibility in these matters rested with the United States, the discussion would be on the initiative of this Government.
Mr. Daridan then came to what was obviously the purpose of his visit. He said that a telegram had been received from Mr. Bidault suggesting that it would be desirable for the Secretary, Mr. Eden and himself to have private discussions on the conditions for the utilization of atomic weapons in the general European area and specifically from bases in French North Africa and Metropolitan France. He mentioned that Mr. Churchill’s recent statement on the use of atomic weapons from bases in the UK2 seemed to make such talks desirable. Mr. Bidault proposed that these talks take place when the three ministers are together in Paris for the NATO meeting.
Mr. Daridan then said that the Embassy understood from the U.S. Armed Services that the proposals for amending the McMahon Act3 would probably not be considered by Congress before June.
He said that the French Government now proposed that the Standing Group should begin working on these questions of employment of atomic weapons under NATO without waiting for formal Congressional [Page 487] action. Mr. Daridan gave the impression that the French Government was not proposing any formal action on the part of the Standing Group, but rather that it should just begin thinking about the problem. He said the French Government believed that the Standing Group was the proper body to deal with the matter.
Mr. Daridan indicated that a member of the Embassy staff would be in touch with Mr. Arneson in regard to the French Government’s suggestion.4
- See statement by the Secretary of State to the North Atlantic Council, Dec. 14, 1953, p. 461, and telegram Secto 7 from Paris, Dec. 16, 1953, p. 471.↩
- On Mar. 23, in response to a query in Parliament; Prime Minister Churchill had made a brief statement reconfirming U.S. airbase rights in the United Kingdom for retaliatory purposes, subject to prior consultation between officials of the two governments. The rights had first been formally extended by the United Kingdom during the time of Prime Minister Churchill’s visit to Washington in January 1952 (H C. Debs., 5th series, vol. 525, cols. 1050–1052). Documentation on the Churchill visit to Washington in January 1952 is printed in volume vi .↩
- Reference is to the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (Public Law 585, 79th Cong., 60 Stat. 755, Aug. 1, 1946).↩
- Jacques Martin, First Secretary of the French Embassy, called on R. Gordon Arneson of S/AE later on Mar. 30 to stress once again the desirability of private tripartite discussions at the forthcoming NAC meeting concerning prior consultation on the use of atomic weapons. “He stressed that while Bidault felt such a discussion was highly desirable he would, of course, leave it to the Secretary to decide when the time was ripe.” Martin and Arneson also reviewed the importance of the Churchill statement and Martin asked for a prognosis on the passage of the amendment to the Atomic Energy Act of 1946. He was given the same answers as was Daridan earlier (Memorandum of conversation, by Arneson, Mar. 30, 1954, 740.5/3–3054).↩