Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation, lot 64 D 199
Memorandum of Conversation, Prepared in the Department of State1
Participants:
- [Mr. Dulles]
- Mr. Phleger
- Mr. MacArthur
- Admiral Davis
- Mr. Bonbright
- Mr. Tyler
- Mr. Stelle
- Mr. Gullion
- Mr. Sturm
- Mr. Galloway
- Mr. Draper
- 1.
- The Secretary reviewed the draft Southeast Asian Collective Security Pact prepared at an earlier meeting (in which the Secretary was not present) and, with minor changes, agreed that it could be tabled as an informal and unofficial working draft at the next US–UK working group meeting Saturday, July 10.2
- 2.
- The Secretary and participants were unsuccessful in defining the
precise geographical limits to be encompassed by the terms of the
treaty. It was agreed that the terminology in sub-paragraph 1 of Article
III “In the area of Southeast Asia and the Southwestern Pacific …” would
be worked out in the meetings with the British.
(a) the other participants had earlier decided that a better phrase might be “Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific” since this would be practically limitless in scope and area, as the JCS seem to prefer. It was tentatively agreed in the earlier meeting that including Hong Kong within the all-inclusive phrase “Western Pacific”, while somewhat disadvantageous to us now, might provide the opportunity within five years, for example, to bring in Japan, the ROK and Formosa, and of course all the countries on the South Asian littoral.
- 3.
- The Secretary was not particularly happy with the idea of including Hong Kong and attempted, with some difficulty, to draw a line along the preferred longitudes and latitudes which would [Page 615] eliminate that British outpost. It was demonstrated, moreover, that areas such as New Caledonia, way out on the fringes of the hypothetical line, embrace a good many of the areas such as Portuguese Timor with which we have little if any concern.
- 4.
- In discussing the possible inclusion of France in this security arrangement the Secretary voiced his reluctance to allowing France to obstruct our present path. However the general consensus was that the exclusion of France would be self-defeating and that several hundred thousand French troops of Southeast Asia could still be counted a formidable force. Furthermore, unless the French Union disintegrates, the French will be obligated to protect their weaker partners (which of course is our intention as well).
- Of the participants listed below William J. Galloway was Special Assistant to MacArthur.↩
The text of a U.S. working draft of a Southeast Asia security treaty, dated July 9, is included among the comparative drafts in SEAP D–2, “Draft Southeast Asia Collective Security Treaty”, dated Aug. 2, p. 686.
“SEAP”, standing for “Southeast Asia Pact” was the series indicator used to denote documents prepared and collected for the use of officials engaged in this project.
↩