662A.00/4–752
No. 15
Memorandum by the Secretary of
State
1
Three cables in today’s log add to my growing concern over the lack of progress in completing the EDC arrangements and some of the decisions which have to be taken at Bonn in connection therewith. These are the cables from Douglas MacArthur, Paris, no. 6127, April 5; McCloy’s telegram of April 5, Bonn, no. 2278; and Gifford’s of April 7, London, no. 4478.2 The first two of these urge the necessity of getting some sort of a deadline. The last one reports the Foreign Office’s doubts as to the wisdom of a deadline and the fact that one cannot think about setting a deadline for a couple of weeks.
I think we should give this whole matter urgent attention having the following questions in mind:
Is it true that we can keep the EDC and the contractual arrangements linked together if the latter get hopelessly bogged down? It seems to me that the same forces which led to the necessity for winding up of the occupation in Japan are also operating in Germany, and that we are going to be faced with a strong demand in Germany to go through with the regime provided for in the contractuals whether or not the EDC is ready. It seems unlikely to me that the renewal of the correspondence with the Soviet Union over [Page 25] Germany will accelerate this tendency. This will produce all sorts of problems with France and may end us in a first-class mess.
In the second place, have we made careful plans for having the Senate consider and approve the German arrangements? If the Congress is going to get out of Washington by the end of June there will be very little time for hearings and consideration if the signature of these documents drags on until the end of May. People are now talking about the middle of May. If the Senate does not approve them, including the agreement to the North Atlantic Treaty, then it may not get around to considering them until January 1953, with all the delay and uncertainty that that involves.
Will you please give this matter your most urgent attention and let me have your recommendations.