Office of the Historian

88. Memorandum of a Conversation, Department of State, Washington, July 10, 19571

Washington, July 10, 1957

SUBJECT

  • Algeria

PARTICIPANTS

  • The Secretary
  • Mr. Louis Joxe, Secretary General, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  • Mr. Jacques Vimont, Minister, French Embassy
  • Mr. William R. Tyler, WE

In the course of his call on the Secretary Mr. Joxe raised the question of Algeria and outlined briefly his views on the necessity for France to find a formula for a solution which would enlist the support of Tunisia and Morocco in order to put an end to the present fighting. Mr. Joxe said, however, that it would not be [Page 272] possible for France to grant independence to Algeria at this time. He said this would not be possible either politically or psychologically.

The Secretary said to Mr. Joxe that we view the Algerian situation with great concern. He pointed out that we had done a great deal to help France at the last meeting of the General Assembly, and that President Eisenhower and he himself had only recently made public statements which had been politically helpful to France. He said that the forthcoming session of the General Assembly would be a very difficult one, and that unless there was real progress toward a peaceful and just solution in Algeria, the United States would find itself unable to play the same role as it had in the past. The Secretary added that the continuation of the trouble in Algeria had an adverse effect on our efforts to encourage certain Arab countries to cooperate with each other and with the West, independently of Nasser.

Mr. Joxe told the Secretary that he fully understood this, and that he hoped very much that it would be possible for the French Government to make rapid headway in its relations with Tunisia and Morocco, so that these two countries, and Bourguiba in particular, would feel able to support France’s efforts to find a solution which would be acceptable, and would contribute to the unity and western orientation of North Africa. Mr. Joxe said that Bourguiba was extremely able and could play a very important role in this regard. He said that unfortunately Bourguiba had not yet decided whether to press forward to help bring about a solution in cooperation with France, or to continue to call for an internationalization of the Algerian problem, which antagonizes French sentiment. Mr. Joxe said that Bourguiba would have to decide to do one or the other, and that he himself had hopes that if Franco-Tunisian relations continued to improve, much headway could be made between now and the fall, although it was out of the question that the French Government could come up with a complete new proposal by the time the UNGA reconvened.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 751S.00/7–1057. Secret. Drafted by Tyler.↩