Office of the Historian

174. Letter From the Secretary of State to Foreign Minister Spaak1

Washington, May 24, 1956.

Dear Mr. Minister: I write with reference to your letter, which I received in Paris on May 5, regarding a possible modification of the United States-Belgian Atomic Energy Agreement of 1955, and to my acknowledgment of May 6, 1956.2

I fully appreciate the considerations you outlined regarding the relation between possible amendment of the bilateral agreement on the one hand and the multilateral negotiation on EURATOM on the other. You will recall that in discussing this general problem with you, Ambassador Alger made clear our view that the United States Government could make available substantially greater resources and adopt an attitude of substantially greater liberality towards a real integrated community possessing effective common responsibility and authority than would be possible for countries separately.

The Department of State and the Atomic Energy Commission have now reviewed the situation in the light of the considerations outlined in your letter. We would agree, as proposed in your final paragraph, that United States experts should pursue the study of the suggestions advanced by Mr. Ryckmans,3 leaving for determination by you the question of whether such studies and possibly further technical discussion should be developed into negotiations for the amendment and clarification of the existing U.S.-Belgian agreement. In this bilateral framework we believe particular attention should be paid at this time to the problems raised by your numbered points 1. and 2., and to ways of clarifying certain clauses of the existing agreement. I am sure that, should negotiations be decided on, there will be no obstacles to mutually satisfactory agreement.

I believe your suggestion offers the best possibility of reconciling the problems which we both face during this period to the advantage of relations between our two countries and of the common work in which we both have such an interest.4

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 611.5597/5–2456. Confidential; Priority. Drafted by Cleveland and approved by Dulles. Transmitted to the Embassy in Brussels for delivery to Spaak in telegram 1395.↩
  2. Neither found in Department of State files.↩
  3. Pierre M.J. Ryckmans, Belgian Atomic Energy Commissioner.↩

  4. Telegram 1096 from Brussels, May 25, informed the Department in part as follows:

    “Text the Secretary’s letter handed today to Spaak, who expressed appreciation and gratification reply. He said if EURATOM principle approved Venice meeting he would now be in position inform other Foreign Ministers he expected enter negotiations with U.S., with which U.K. must also be associated, for revision Belgian agreements these two countries to bring them in line with EURATOM provisions. He added he would now be in position inform other Ministers he hoped obtain advantages through revision present agreements which could be transferred EURATOM when latter became reality.” (Department of State, Central Files, 611.5597/5–2556)

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