740.5/10–354
The Secretary of, State to the President 1
[Dear Mr. President:] Have just signed with the eight other Foreign Ministers the agreements reached here. They still have to be perfected in some detail, but an immense amount of work has been accomplished, and I believe that if what was done here is finally realized, we will have saved most of the values inherent in EDC. The Brussels Council will have many supra-national responsibilities, and while the present arrangements do not go as far as EDC in creating [Page 1370] parliamentary controls, this disadvantage is to an extent offset by the British committal to continental Europe. The work has been very exacting, particularly for my advisers and experts, and they have made a tremendous contribution. In the main, I have tried personally to play a background role, believing that it was important that what emerged here should appear to be essentially an agreement among the Europeans themselves and that we should avoid even appearance of a result which reflected US pressures. Of course, our presence here has been in fact the indispensable ingredient without which the whole affair would have fallen apart, and it will be necessary for us to continue our support of the European army.
I suggest that you may think it wise quickly to make indication of your satisfaction of the results so as to prepare the way for an effective follow-up by the American people and the Congress.
The principal fly in the ointment is that Mendes-France has insisted that a Saar settlement is a condition precedent to his proceeding with his Parliament, and in that way he has preserved for himself an “out” if he should find it expedient to reverse his present position.
As you probably know, it is planned to announce a Trieste settlement on next Tuesday, and this will, I think be an important further contribution to the cause of European unity and solidarity.2
I am about to take the plane at 5 p.m. London time and expect to be back in Washington at 8:30 Monday morning.
Faithfully yours,
- This message was transmitted to the Department of State in telegram Dulte 27, Oct. 3. with instructions that it be sent to the President; a notation on the source text indicates that it was relayed to the Summer White House at 3:55 p.m. on Oct. 3.↩
- Documentation concerning the Trieste settlement is presented in volume viii .↩