Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Germany and Austria, Volume VII, Part 1

740.5/12–1953

No. 314
United Kingdom-French Draft Security Declaration ¹

secret

[ Paris , November 2, 1953?]

A. The Governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and France, resolved to devote their efforts to the strengthening of peace, in accordance with the general principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and in particular with the purposes defined in Article 2 of the Charter:

determined to safeguard the purely defensive character of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization which is clearly expressed in the Treaty establishing this Organization;

considering that the European Defense Community by its very structure constitutes a strictly defensive organization;

formally take note that the German Federal Republic has undertaken to accept the obligations of the Charter of the United Nations and in particular of Article 2 thereof;

record the declaration by the terms of which the Government of the Federal German Republic;

recalling that the provisions of the treaty establishing the European Defense Community, relating to the integration of forces and pooling of resources and armaments of the member states on the European continent make any individual armed action on the part of these States impossible;

undertakes to refrain from any action likely to revise or impair either these provisions or the strictly defensive character of the European Defense Community of which the forces cannot be employed except for the protection of the territory of member States against an armed attack in Europe;

undertakes in consequence in no case to have recourse to force, but to resolve by peaceful means any disputes which may arise between the Federal Republic and other States.

B. The Governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and France declare that they will withhold all forms of support from any Government committing any action in violation of the above-mentioned undertakings and to regard themselves, wherever they consider it necessary to this end, as automatically released from their commitments to that Government. They accept a similar obligation in case the Government of unified Germany should have recourse to force to modify the frontiers settled by the Treaty of Peace.

C. The Governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and France will use their best efforts to obtain the association of the other member States of the NATO with the declaration and the obligation set out in the preceding paragraph.

1. The source text was attached, together with three other drafts of the security declaration, to a memorandum from Elbrick to Secretary Dulles, dated Dec. 19, which was prepared for a meeting with Ambassador Bonnet that day. The draft is the version which emerged from the first session of the Tripartite Working Group (see Document 312) and is the draft shown to Adenauer on Dec. 11 at Paris. For a record of Dulles’ discussion with Bonnet on Dec. 19, see Document 319.