No. 152
Editorial Note
On December 9, Julius Holmes discussed with Secretary of State Dulles a paper prepared in the Bureau of European Affairs which recommended a three-step approach to the Trieste question: (1) A final tripartite démarche would be made to Tito in an effort to obtain Yugoslav agreement to attend a preliminary meeting on the basis of the November 13 and December 6 soundings; (2) if Tito’s reply turned out to be negative and final, then a tripartite approach to the Italian Government to ascertain its final position on a preliminary five-power Ambassadors’ meeting without conditions, as had been proposed by Eden; and (3) if both these efforts proved unsuccessful, the United States would then propose to the British that they have direct United States–United Kingdom negotiations with Yugoslavia before carrying out any further implementation of the October 8 decision. These proposals were summarized, and Holmes’ meeting with Dulles was briefly referred to, in a briefing memorandum prepared for Dulles by Merchant, December 11, preparatory to Dulles’ departure for the North Atlantic Treaty Council meeting in Paris. A copy of a paper, which has no identifying notations or date but which, from its contents, appears to be the [Page 348] paper prepared in the Bureau of European Affairs regarding Trieste, is in Italian Desk files, lot 58 D 357, “December 1953”. In a conversation with British Ambassador Makins on December 10, Dulles indicated that the United States and the United Kingdom might be reaching a point where some risks would have to be taken with Yugoslavia, since the two countries could not be in a position of having Yugoslavia force them to back down. Makins said that he understood that Holmes was working on a paper which he offered to take when he returned to London on December 11. Makins was informed that the paper was not yet ready, but that it would be given to him as soon as it was completed. (Italian Desk files, lot 58 D 357, “Trieste—December 1953”)
Holmes went to London on December 15 and apparently took with him the EUR paper outlining the three-phase approach on Trieste. He discussed such a paper with Ivone Kirkpatrick, the Permanent Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, with Geoffrey W. Harrison, the Assistant Under Secretary of State, and with others, at a meeting at the Foreign Office on December 16. A memorandum of this conversation was transmitted to the Department of State as an enclosure to despatch 2173 from London, December 17. (750G.00/12–1753) Holmes’ discussion of the plan on December 18 with Eden, Kirkpatrick, and others was reported in Document 154.