191. Letter From President de Gaulle to President Eisenhower0
Dear Mr. President: Your letter of August 2 brings me indications regarding the manner in which you envisage the tripartite cooperation which I have several times proposed to you and to Mr. Macmillan. I note that you contemplate a meeting of our Ministers of Foreign Affairs at the time of the session of the United Nations General Assembly, a meeting which, in my opinion, may indeed be useful and which, moreover, must be held without fail. I see also that you allude to the possibility of a meeting of us three, without, however, mentioning either date or topics. Permit me to say, nevertheless, in all friendship, that your concept appears to me to be too restrictive to bring about joint action by our West and to render our alliance more truly effective.
At this very moment the crisis in the Congo reveals our lack of harmony. While agreement between the United States, Great Britain, and France would probably have sufficed to induce that infant State to adopt a reasonable course, the divergencies of our West are, on the contrary, to a great extent responsible for the fact that this new independence has, in its first steps, fallen into disorder and anarchy. Moreover, we find our forces scattered in the face of the maneuvers and, possibly, the intervention of the Soviets in the heart of Africa. In this affair everything is happening as though the West, which is the cradle of common sense and freedom, were voluntarily dissolving its responsibilities in the composite mixture of the United Nations.
I must tell you that France, invoking once again on this occasion the prospect of an international conflict, feels more deeply than ever that there is something gravely defective in the organization of our alliance. In these events which are unfolding from one end of the world to the other, my country notes constantly that those whom it considers its allies are behaving as though they were not. But how could States feel themselves bound to one another when there is between them no political solidarity in the presence of what is happening in nine-tenths of the earth? The fact that the Atlantic alliance, such as it is, covers only the narrow sector of Western Europe, while Continental Asia, Southeast Asia, Asia Minor, North Africa, Black Africa, Central America, and [Page 401] South America are full of problems and seething dangers and might become theaters of war, appears to France inadequate to the circumstances and incompatible with its world responsibilities.
Furthermore, the system of military integration applied to the Atlantic Alliance, which in fact assigns to the United States the possible conduct of war in Europe, the employment of the forces that would take part in it, and the entire disposition of the atomic arms which would be the basic weapons, deprives France, her people, her Government, and her Command, of the responsibility for her own defense. Considering the facts of the case as they appeared when NATO was established, this state of affairs could erstwhile be explained to a certain extent. You understand, I am sure, why it has become today unacceptable to my country.
My dear Mr. President, my dear Friend, I feel that we—you, Mr. Macmillan, and I—hold in our hands an opportunity, which is at the same time a definite opportunity and a very temporary one, to organize a true political and strategic cooperation of our West in the face of the numerous and dangerous threats that confront us. We can do this all the better because, with respect to the basis of the problems, our views and our intentions are unquestionably quite close. If we three together were to confront this problem shoulder to shoulder, it seems to me that we could work out a joint plan for organizing our united action on world problems and for reorganizing the Alliance. I add that our agreement would produce a salutary impression throughout the world.
In the event that you would be willing to engage in this undertaking, I propose to you, and at the same time I am suggesting to Mr. Macmillan, that we meet in September, at whatever place and time suit your convenience.
Accept, Mr. President, my sentiments of very high and very cordial consideration.1
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Project Clean Up. No classification marking. The source text is a Department of State translation; the French text is attached. The Embassy in Paris transmitted a translation of this letter in telegram 545 from Paris, August 9; a copy was sent to Goodpaster on August 10. (Department of State, Central Files, 396.1/8–960) The signed original was sent to Goodpaster by Calhoun under cover of a memorandum on August 11. (Ibid., 396.1/8–1160)↩
- On August 12, Eisenhower replied: “This is a brief note to thank you for your letter which poses some very important questions that will take us time to study. I shall be writing you soon at some length. I want you to know that I appreciate the frankness with which you have written.” (Transmitted in telegram 623 to Paris, August 12; ibid., 396.1/8–1260) Houghton reported the letter was handed to the Director of the President’s Cabinet, Rene Brouillet, on August 13 who said it would be transmitted by courier to de Gaulle at Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises that same day. (Telegram 591 from Paris, August 13; ibid., 396.1/8–1360)↩
- Printed from the English translation that indicates that de Gaulle signed the original French-language copy.↩