Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Western Europe, Volume VII, Part 2

264. Telegram From the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Murphy) to the Department of State⁰

Ankara, December 6, 1959, 7:59 p.m.

Murto 6. Rome—eyes only for Ambassador. At final meeting with Italians, President met with Gronchi, Segni and Pella late afternoon December 5.

1. Aid to underdeveloped countries. Gronchi noted agreement that initial step was to examine question in OEEC, and subsequently to consider proposal of conference to which President had referred (Murto 1 and 2).¹

2. Berlin. Gronchi briefly restated position expressed on previous day.² President agreed that Italian proposals could be considered among others. They had been tried at Geneva,³ but Khrushchev’s reaction might now be different. President said would prefer not to mention Berlin in public at present time, but instead assume that Soviets had abandoned any intention of provocative action there. President said he did not wish to do anything to damage Adenauer’s attitude regarding discussion of Berlin with Soviets.

3. Military aid. Gronchi said Italians understood U.S. budgetary problems, but restated Italian needs. Gronchi specifically asked that, in addition to financial aid, Italians be furnished with end items, such as transport vehicles, signal equipment and aircraft. President said he would look into this at once and bring it to Department’s urgent attention for consideration in light of funds made available by Congress. Gronchi expressed appreciation but said he hoped criteria of distribution among recipient countries would give priority to points of greatest danger such as Italy.

4. Participation in summit meetings. Gronchi said he hoped agreement could be reached on concrete agreement on Italian participation in Western and East-West summits. On first East-West Summit meeting, he recognized difficulty of Italian participation and said that, for this phase, Italy would depend on assurances of Copenhagen Declaration.⁴ On preliminary Western summit meetings,⁵ he said Italy was vitally interested in disarmament and security questions. If Western summit discussed only Berlin, Italy would advance no request to participate. President interjected that he assumed that this also included Germany but Gronchi said that, in light of Italy’s commitments in relation to Germany as member of NATO, they felt they must be brought in. Italy could not agree to being excluded from discussions affecting her national security. On disarmament, general principles could be discussed in UN and new 10–Power group, but when concrete proposals such as limitations in specified zones were discussed, Italy had to participate. President said he wanted to and would take Italians views into account. He said of course we would go through with commitment in Copenhagen Declaration but he could not go beyond this because other countries were involved. He said 10-Power group should not be confined to general principles but should be forum for detailed negotiation. He agreed Italian interest in disarmament obviously important. Gronchi then put forward proposal reported in Murto 3.⁶

Meeting concluded with discussion and revision of Italian redraft of draft communiqué which Embassy had previously submitted to them in text sent by Department.

Murphy

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 800.0000/12–659. Confidential. Repeated to Rome.
1. Documents 261 and 262.
2. See Document 261.
3. At the Foreign Ministers Meeting May 11–August 5.
4. For text of the NATO communiqué, May 7, 1958, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1958, pp. 479–481.
5. See footnote 1, Document 261.
6. Gronchi stressed Italian desire to participate in East-West discussions and read a statement proposing that at the end of their December 19 meeting the heads of Western governments issue a statement noting Italian and Canadian participation in the 10-nation disarmament conference and calling for the association of these two nations in all the preparatory work and preliminary discussions preparing for the Paris Summit conference scheduled for the spring of 1960. Segni noted that the Italians had secured British approval for the idea. Eisenhower agreed to consider the proposal. (Murto 3, December 5; Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 64 D 560, CF 1536)