124. Memorandum of Conversation0
UNITED STATES DELEGATION TO THE MEETING OF FOREIGN MINISTERS
Palais des Nations, Geneva, 1959
PARTICIPANTS
- M. Etienne Manac’h, Member of French Delegation
- Mr. W.J. Stoessel, Jr., US Delegation
SUBJECT
- De Gaulle’s Views on Atomic Bomb
Manac’h said that de Gaulle is insistent on the necessity for France to have its own atomic weapons because he feels that, with the development of intercontinental missiles, the U.S. increasingly will be reluctant [Page 238] to use its nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union to defend European countries.
Manac’h, who said his information was based on a talk with a close collaborator of de Gaulle, said that de Gaulle realizes the difficulties and dangers posed by the prospect that additional countries other than France may wish to follow France’s example in developing their own atomic weapons. de Gaulle’s plan, according to Manac’h, is to develop a “European deterrent” based on French atomic weapons. Under this scheme, France will be the only European country to develop and produce atomic weapons, and she will receive financial assistance in this effort from other European countries, notably Germany and Italy. French atomic weapons will be shared out to other members of the European Community of Six, under conditions governing their use similar to that which the U.S. has established for employment of U.S. bombs located in NATO countries.
Manac’h said that he fully realized all of the difficulties inherent in this reported scheme of de Gaulle’s. However, he was confident that this was in the background of de Gaulle’s thinking concerning atomic weapons and that it fitted in logically with de Gaulle’s ideas on France as the spokesman for Europe.
- Source: Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 64 D 560, CF 1342. Confidential. Drafted by Stoessel. The meeting was held at the Restaurant Bearn.↩