State-JCS Meetings, lot 61 D 417
No. 496
Memorandum of the Substance of
Discussion at a Department of State–Joint Chiefs of Staff Meeting,
Held in Washington, February 6, 1952, 11:30 a.m.1
[Here follow a list of persons present (18) and discussion of United States relations with Korea and France. Generals Bradley and Vandenberg and Admiral Fechteler attended for the Joint Chiefs. The Army was represented by the Vice Chief of Staff, General Hull and Matthews headed the Department of State group.]
Japanese Peace Treaty
Mr. Nash: Secretary Lovett has asked me to raise the question of the status of the Japanese Peace Treaty. We are concerned about the speed with which the Treaty is going through the Senate and the effect that Senate ratification might have on the negotiation of an administrative agreement in Tokyo. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the Treaty yesterday. There is a possibility, perhaps a probability, that the Treaty will be called up for formal ratification in a week or two. We are very much disturbed about this. I spoke to Mr. Allison about it and told him that we thought that Mr. Dulles had agreed with General Bradley regarding the necessity of concluding a satisfactory administrative agreement and security treaty before the ratification of the peace treaty. Mr. Dulles told the Senators that he fully supported General Bradley’s view on this matter. Mr. Allison now tells me that this is not Mr. Dulles’ view. Secretary Lovett will have to speak to the President and to the Chairman of the Armed Forces committee with the object of deferring action on the peace treaty until we have the administrative agreement. I only wanted to call this to your attention and to let you know that we are unhappy about it. We have been emphasizing this point for two years.
With reference to the directive to General Ridgway, I have been negotiating with Mr. Allison and the JSSC. I think we should be able to go ahead vigorously with the administrative agreement and we might possibly conclude it in 10 to 14 days. If the Japanese drag their feet—and they might—we will have to hold up on the ratification of the peace treaty.
[Page 1134]Mr. Matthews: I don’t know much about this problem but I will look into it. Could the matter be taken care of by delay in the depositing of the ratification after the passage of the treaty?
General Hull: Once the Senate ratifies the treaty our negotiating position is shot.
General Bradley: We have been worrying about this for two years. If we cannot do anything else, we will have to hold up the depositing of the ratification until we get the administrative agreement. It would be far better, however, if the Senate did not ratify until we had the administrative agreement.
- A notation on the title page reads: “State draft: Not cleared with any of the participants.)”↩