Office of the Historian

327. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, September 16, 1968, 1 p.m.

SUBJECT

  • Spanish Membership in NATO (Part 4 of 7)

PARTICIPANTS

  • Spain
    • His Excellency Fernando Castiella, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain
    • His Excellency the Marquis de Merry del Val, Ambassador of Spain
    • The Honorable Ramon Sedo Gomez, Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Spain
    • The Honorable Francisco Javier Elorza, Director General of International Cooperation and Economic Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
    • The Honorable Nuno Aguirre de Carcer, Director General of American and Far Eastern Affairs, Spanish Foreign Ministry
    • The Honorable Aurelio Valls, Minister-Counselor, Embassy of Spain
    • Mr. Marcelino Oreja, Director, Technical Cabinet, Spanish Foreign Ministry
  • United States
    • The Secretary
    • The Honorable Paul H. Nitze, Deputy Secretary of Defense
    • The Honorable Frederick L. Deming, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs
    • The Honorable Townsend Hoopes, Under Secretary of the Air Force
    • The Honorable John M. Leddy, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs
    • Mr. George S. Springsteen, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European Affairs
    • Mr. Ralph Earle II, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs
    • Mr. George W. Landau, Country Director for Spain and Portugal
    • Mr. Joseph L. Smith, Country Officer for Spain

The Secretary said that no one regretted the exclusion of Spain from the European defense community more than the U.S. He said that we believe that this is due to the internal politics of three or four countries. The Secretary said he also understood the Spanish did not want to submit themselves to the scrutiny of other European countries. He said that the U.S. had made efforts on several occasions to have Spain included in NATO. The Secretary said that we had reached a point where Belgian Prime Minister Spaak had been willing to proceed, but then Spaak had left office. The Secretary said that in some cases the governments of the countries mentioned had no serious objections to Spanish participation but were afraid of domestic opposition and for this reason were unwilling to proceed.

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The Foreign Minister said he was grateful for the U.S. posture expressed not only by the Department of State but also by Congress.

The Secretary said he would raise the question of Spanish membership in NATO with the NATO foreign ministers later this fall in New York and see what their reaction would be.

The Foreign Minister interrupted and said that Spain was not asking for U.S. intervention with the NATO ministers nor for membership.

The Secretary replied that he would not leave with any of the ministers the impression that Spain had raised the question, but he said he would try to discover if there had been any change in their attitude. He said that he understood fully that Spain was not applying for membership.

Foreign Minister Castiella said that Spain asked only to be heard—not to be a member. He said there is a strong movement in Spain which favors a policy of neutrality. He cited the example of Morocco which, as a non-aligned nation, received aid from both the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

The Secretary remarked that the problem was not as simple as that and said that he would like to have the opportunity to discuss sometime at greater length with the Foreign Minister the question of Morocco.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 7 SP. Secret. Drafted by Smith and approved in S on September 26. The conversation was held in the James Madison Room of the Department of State.↩