396.1 BE/1–554: Telegram
No. 322
The Secretary
of State to the Embassy in
France1
2397. Please pass William Tyler. Since impact of Berlin conference on public opinion likely have critical importance for moving ahead on general European policy, Dept interested in taking steps ensure good play of positive features of Western position during conference and as much advance immunization as possible against Soviet points which may prove infectious. Re latter, it seems clear that French public opinion would be especially vulnerable to Soviet suggestion of settlement Indochina conflict by means Five-Power conference. Might also be vulnerable to Soviet play for alternative European security arrangements, probably based on some form of mutual assistance pacts.
In your judgment, is there anything that can be done at this time… to provide “anti-bodies” against this type of Soviet appeal? We do not wish anything of this nature labelled with an American source, and it would be equally unproductive to attempt discount entire conference. We have in mind possibility of completely realistic statements or newspaper articles on such things as Soviet use colonial nationalism issue (i.e., exploitation of “Revolutionary Movement in the Colonies,” VI World Congress Comintern 1938, etc.) or mutual assistance and non-aggression pacts. Examples of Soviet violation of “security” treaties include Peace Treaties of 1920, Treaty of Paris Protocol of 1929 on Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy, Treaties of Non-Aggression and Peaceful Settlement of Disputes signed in 1926 and 1932, Conciliation Convention of 1932, Convention of 1933 for the Definition of Aggression, and the Pacts of Mutual Assistance signed in 1939. List of non-aggression pacts reads like obituary column: Poland (renewed 1938), Finland (1934), Lithuania (1934), Latvia (1934), Estonia (1934), Rumania (1933). Another point to make would be dangers of German neutralization for Western neighbors.
Please inform Department whether anything of this nature feasible through your contacts.…
- Drafted by Kidd; cleared with Merchant, Elbrick, and MacArthur; and initialed for Secretary Dulles by MacArthur.↩