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

762.00/5–952

No. 98
Memorandum by the Secretary of State to the President

secret

Washington, May 9, 1952.

At our meeting on Monday last,¹ after going over with me the main points to be included in a tripartite answer to the Russian note on German elections and a German treaty, you approved the approach outlined. At the time I assured you that after the text had been hammered out with our Allies I would submit to you the language of a proposed reply. This is now enclosed.² It is still not in final form since another meeting in London of representatives of the three Powers will be necessary before final agreement. I thought that you would wish to see it in this stage.

With one exception the proposed note follows the principles which you and I discussed. The exception is this. Our proposal had included an offer to meet with the Russians through the High Commissioners in Germany to discuss plans for having the United Nations Commission or some neutral body investigate conditions throughout Germany to see whether free elections were possible in all parts of it and to recommend such rectification of existing conditions as might be necessary. It was the unanimous opinion of Mr. Eden, Mr. Schuman, Chancellor Adenauer and Mayor Reuter that so definite a proposal would raise the danger in many quarters in Germany and elsewhere in Europe of postponing the signing of the EDC treaty and the contractual relations with Germany until such a meeting were held. Our representatives in Europe were impressed by the unanimity of this view. It seemed to us that our European friends are better qualified than we are to appraise this danger which must certainly be avoided. We therefore recommend that our original proposal be amended by accepting the European view as it is expressed in this draft.

I know that you will not be able to get to this paper until this evening or possibly tomorrow morning. When you have had a chance to consider it, I should appreciate your instruction so that I may tell our people in London to go forward with a meeting, with the paper as it is or as it may be modified in accordance with your wishes.

I am going to Sandy Spring this evening after dinner and shall be there tonight after nine o’clock and tomorrow. The White House operator knows how to reach me.³

Respectfully,

Dean Acheson

1. No record of a meeting between President Truman and Secretary Acheson on either Apr. 28 or May 5 has been found in Department of State files; however, a memorandum of conversation with the President, drafted by the Secretary of State and dated May 1, reads as follows:

   “The President approved the line which we were taking in the Soviet reply. I assured him that after we got down to a more definitive text with the British and French, I would submit it to him.” (662.001/5–152)

2. No enclosure was found attached to the source text. For text of the draft under reference here, see telegram 5808, supra.
3. According to a White House memorandum, dated May 10 and initialed “H.S.T.”, President Truman telephoned Secretary Acheson during the evening of May 9 and approved the suggested deletion and the text of the draft reply. (662.001/5–1052) The President’s approval was then transmitted to London in telegram 5825, May 9 at 8:44 p.m. (662.001/5–952)