880.2553/4–554
No. 334
The Under Secretary of State Smith) to the Attorney
General of the United States (Brownell)1
Dear Mr. Attorney General: On January 5, 1954, the Department received a letter from attorneys representing Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, Inc., Standard Oil Company of California and The Texas Company in connection with the pending civil anti-trust suit [Page 794] against these companies.2 In this letter the oil companies requested an opportunity to place before the Department of State and other interested agencies the results of their investigation concerning the probable effects on United States interests of pursuing the case against them. This request apparently resulted from a suggestion made in Judge Stanley H. Barnes’ letter of December 24, 1953,2 to a representative of one of the companies.
On January 23, 1954, representatives of the companies concerned met representatives of this Department, the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency3 and presented evidence of the effect upon United States interests which may be expected to follow prosecution of this suit. A transcript of this presentation was transmitted to Judge Barnes shortly thereafter. Since then the Department of State has sought and obtained the views of our Ambassadors in the Near East concerning this question and has made an intelligence estimate of it.4 I enclose two copies of this estimate for your consideration.
In view of the conclusions reached in the estimate, it is my hope that arrangements can be made to settle the suit without protracted proceedings or publicity which would serve to damage United States interests in the Middle East.5
Sincerely,
- This letter was drafted by Fritzlan and Armstrong between Apr. 2 and Apr. 7 and was cleared by Eakens, Kalijarvi, and Phleger.↩
- Not printed, but see Document 326.↩
- Not printed, but see Document 326.↩
- See Document 327.↩
- Presumably, this refers to the paper prepared in the Department of State, Feb. 19, supra.↩
- Attached to
the source text was a typed memorandum which reads: “J[ohn] D. J[ernegan]: Dave
Fritzlan has a draft of
the CIA letter (attached). Dave
expects to have a proposal on the oil question by Friday or Monday.
F[red] L. H[adsel]” The
undated CIA letter, from Cabell to Brownell, not printed, had been
drafted on Mar. 11. It advised the Attorney General that the CIA had evaluated the testimony of the
oil company witnesses and the views of the Ambassadors, and agreed
with their views. The last two sentences of the letter read: “It is
not inconceivable that the next step proposed by the anti-foreign
element [in the Middle East] will be expropriation as was the case
in Iran three years ago. This anti-foreign element would be
encouraged, at least in some degree, by public proceedings tending
to depict the American oil companies as violators of the laws of the
United States or as subject to the direct control of the government
of the United States.”
A handwritten note on the memorandum advised that the CIA would be kept informed of developments and would receive a copy of this letter. (880.2553/4–554)
↩