Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Western European Security and Integration, Volume IV

156. Telegram From the Ambassador in France (Dillon) to the Department of State¹

Paris, February 7, 1956—8 p.m.

3535. Re Deptel 2829.² When I finished briefing Pineau³ on Eden–Eisenhower meeting according circular Deptel 518⁴ I asked him whether he had any questions and he replied that he was not fully clear on US attitude toward EURATOM. I informed him of US thinking as outlined in reference telegram. Pineau said that this information on US position would be helpful to him at Brussels meeting. I told him that we were conveying this same information to all Foreign Ministers of six countries.

Pineau said he was afraid Brussels meeting would be difficult because of problems posed by the common market. He said there was no possibility that French assembly would accept at this time a treaty on common market and therefore if progress was to be made toward European integration decision would have to be made to go ahead with EURATOM alone as first step. He said that he personally was strongly in favor of European integration and of common market but that it was also necessary to take into account what was possible, and common market would not be possible for France without great deal of prior negotiations, and also great deal of education in France. Pineau expressed the fear that some of those in other countries who really were not keen about EURATOM might attempt to use the common market as a method of killing EURATOM. He asked me what the US attitude was on tying EURATOM to the common market. I replied that I had received no precise instructions on this point but from what I knew of US policy I thought I could tell him that, while we strongly favored the common market as a big step toward European integration, we would much prefer the smaller step involved in the adoption of EURATOM alone to no advance at all in this field. Pineau said he considered this a realistic viewpoint and hoped it would prevail with other five countries.

Dillon

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 840.1901/2–756. Confidential. Repeated for information to Bonn, London, Rome, The Hague, Brussels, and Luxembourg.
2. Telegram 2829, February 4, also sent to the Embassies in the other five ECSC countries, requested each Embassy to seek a convenient opportunity to inform the Foreign Minister and other senior officials of the facts underlying the U.S.-British communiqué dealing with European integration. (Ibid., 840.1901/2–456) For text of the communiqué, issued at the conclusion of the Eden talks, see Department of State Bulletin, February 13, 1956, pp. 232–234.
3. French Foreign Minister Christian Pineau.
4. This circular telegram of February 4, summarized the discussions held during Eden’s visit. (Department of State, Central Files, 611.41/2–456)