740.5/5–2752
The Secretary of State to the President 1
Dear Mr. President: When I told you at the plane that I hoped to be able to return to Washington and report to you “mission accomplished” I had my fingers crossed. On Saturday things looked so dark I never thought we could make it. I am delighted to report that the European Defense Community treaty and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization protocol and related documents were signed about an hour ago.2 We have also signed the tripartite declaration concerning [Page 684] the vital interest which the United States and United Kingdom place in the European Defense Community and which has caused so much trouble over the weekend. This will be released to the press within the next few minutes. You will probably see the text before this message reaches you. We felt we came out alright on it and the phraseology as it stands is within the bounds of that which you approved. Tomorrow we begin a tripartite session with Mr. Schuman and Mr. Eden and expect to get into Far Eastern questions, particularly the Indochina matter which you and I, Bob Lovett and General Bradley went over just before my departure. We will also have a preliminary exchange of views on the recent Soviet notes and will probably touch on the situation in Berlin. Later in the afternoon and on the following day, I will be talking with Mr. Schuman and members of the French Cabinet including Mr. Pinay and Mr. Pleven. We expect to have a thorough go-around on the North African situation and I hope we can make some progress on getting the French to go forth with a really constructive program for Tunisia.
We will leave here Thursday night and arrive about 1000 Friday morning.
I understand you expect to be on the Williamsburg over weekend. In case you by any chance had any thought of it, please do not let my arrival in any way affect your plans. I will have a talk with you on Monday and give you a full report of what has occurred here.