Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Western European Security, Volume V, Part 1

740.5/3–653

Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Merchant) to the Secretary of State ¹

confidential

[Washington,] June 16, 1953.

Subject:

• Letters to Representative Chiperfield² and Senator Wiley opposing House Foreign Affairs Committee’s amendment withholding military assistance from EDC countries until treaty is ratified.

Discussion:

Chairman Chiperfield of the House Foreign Affairs Committee has requested a letter expressing your views on the amendment to the Mutual Security Act passed by his Committee which has the effect of withholding new military aid from the EDC countries until they ratify the Treaty.³ Representative Chiperfield has informed us confidentially that he is personally opposed to the amendment. Senator Wiley is also opposed, and his Committee approved the Mutual Security Act without such amendment.

Representative Chiperfield feels that the conference on the Mutual Security Act will afford the best opportunity for eliminating or modifying the amendment, since he and Senator Wiley will be the principal conferees. However, there is a good chance that the amendment will be discussed in the House, in which case Representative Chiperfield would like to have a letter from you for use on the floor.

The attached letter, along with a duplicate letter to Senator Wiley, has been prepared for this purpose. It states our full agreement with doing everything reasonable and practical to achieve EDC ratification, but opposes the House Committee’s amendment as not achieving the purpose for which it was intended.

Recommendation:

That you sign the attached letters to Representative Chiperfield and Senator Wiley.

[Attachment]

The Secretary of State to the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (Chiperfield)⁴

My Dear Mr. Chiperfield: I am writing with reference to the amendment recently approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee providing that approximately half of all military assistance funds under Title I of the proposed Mutual Security Act will be reserved to the European Defense Community. I believe that the practical effect of this amendment would be to deny to the EDC countries any military assistance from fiscal year 1954 funds until the EDC Treaty is ratified.

The ratification of EDC is of the utmost importance to the strength and unity of our European allies, and I strongly favor all reasonable and practical measures on the part of the United States Government to encourage ratification. However, I am convinced that the Committee’s amendment will not serve the purpose intended and may actually have a contrary effect.

As President Eisenhower said in his State of the Union message to the Congress, “the needed union of Western Europe manifestly cannot be manufactured from without; it can only be created from within.” I believe this statement represents a profound truth which we must all fully appreciate if our efforts to assist Europe in obtaining unity are to be fruitful. We can and must encourage unity in Europe, but we cannot compel unity. It is true that EDC is very important to the United States because its success or failure will exert a tremendous influence upon the effectiveness of our common security system in the Atlantic area. But the final decisions on EDC must be taken by the nations directly concerned.

European statesmen conceived and developed the plan for a European Defense Community, and all the six governments concerned are urging their respective parliaments to ratify the EDC Treaty. Because there are no good alternatives to EDC, I believe their efforts will be successful. In the meantime, I believe that we should not embarrass these governments by measures which, rightly or wrongly, might be interpreted as coercive or as attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of friendly nations.

The Committee’s amendment would prevent the use of a large part of our fiscal year 1954 military assistance funds until EDC is a going concern. However, we must recognize that the basic purpose of our military assistance to Europe is not solely to strengthen Europe but also to protect our own national security. Our assistance represents the United States contribution to a collective enterprise based upon plans mutually agreed upon among fourteen nations. Failure to make this contribution, or undue delay in making it, will directly affect the safety of the United States as well as its allies.

Even under the most favorable circumstances, it is evident that the EDC Treaty cannot be finally ratified until the European parliaments return from their summer recess. Thus, the principal effect of the amendment would be to delay still further the attainment of an adequate defense posture in Western Europe—to compound the delay already occasioned by the prolonged consideration of EDC by the European parliaments. For economic and financial reasons, the NATO defense schedule has already been modified, and I believe that further delay would involve risks greater than we can safely assume.

I am sending a similar letter to Senator Wiley.

Sincerely yours,

John Foster Dulles

1. Drafted by Fessenden, concurred by Morton of H and Martin of S/MSA.
2. Attachment, below.
3. Reference is to the so-called “Richards amendment” to H.R. 5710, a bill to amend further the Mutual Security Act of 1951. The text of the Richards amendment is printed in telegram Edcol 10 to Paris, July 13, p. 796. The Richards amendment, as its sponsor, Rep. James Richards of South Carolina stated, was actually no amendment at all, constituting lines 3–5 of page 2 of H.R. 5710. Richards’ proposal was discussed at some length in the House on June 19 and July 13, 1953 at which times further amendments were unsuccessfully proposed. (Congressional Record, vol. 99, pts. 5, 6, pp. 6899–6900, 8689–8690) Documentation on H.R. 5710 is printed in volume i .
4. Source text carries the stamped date June 18, 1953. It was drafted by Nunley on June 17 and cleared by Martin of S/MSA, Morton of H, and Merchant. There is no indication on the source text when the letter was sent or delivered to Representative Chiperfield. An identical letter to Senator Wiley bearing the same stamped date and the same names as drafter and clearing officers is in file 740.5/3–653.