359. Telegram From the Embassy in France to the Department of State1
1853. Eyes only Ambassador Aldrich. Eyes only Secretary after conclusion of conversation at Quai d’Orsay with Maurice Faure2 on [Page 761] EURATOM problems reported separately, he raised Suez problem with me.
Faure said it was clear that Atlantic Alliance was now in the midst of its greatest crisis. He said that France considered Nasser to be a mortal danger to her existence and that she could not permit present situation to continue much longer. He said that it would be vital, immediately after American elections, to reach firm agreement on this problem.
Faure said he could well understand viewpoint prevalent in U.S. that French and British by their policies in former colonial areas were in effect promoting local nationalist movements which, for want of help elsewhere, were attempting to turn to Soviet Union. However, he said that French and British looked at present crisis differently and he was afraid that this was a case where the U.S. would have to decide which of her friends she preferred the most, the countries of Western Europe or the Bandung powers. Unless the U.S. clearly took her place with the Western powers when the showdown came he said that he felt the Atlantic Alliance was finished.
Comment: This point of view closely paralleling that of Chaban-Delmas,3 and coming from a man belonging to a totally different political milieu, and who has always been strong supporter of NATO, is added confirmation of the gravity of present situation, not only from point of view of Franco-American relations but for the eventual position of Western Europe as a whole.
[Here follows a paragraph on an unrelated subject.]
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 684.86/10–2056. Secret. Received at 11:28 a.m. Repeated to London.↩
- French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and head of the French Delegation at the Common Market and EURATOM.↩
- See telegram 1839, Document 357.↩