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

60. Memorandum of Conversation⁰

October 17, 1958, 2:48 p.m.

SUBJECT

• DeGaulle Letter

PARTICIPANTS

• The Secretary
• Ambassador Hervé Alphand, French Embassy
• M. Charles Lucet, Minister, French Embassy
• Mr. C. Burke Elbrick, EUR
• Mr. Robert H. McBride, WE

The French Ambassador said that he would like to report to Paris before the Secretary’s departure regarding US consideration of the secret letter which General deGaulle had sent to the President. The Secretary noted this communication did not appear to be so secret any more. Alphand remarked that a copy had been given to Spaak, and it had been shown to the Germans and Italians. The Secretary noted that there had been references to the letter in the Italian press.

The Secretary replied to Alphand’s query to the effect that we were studying the letter hard. He said Spaak had also been active on this front. Alphand said Spaak’s Boston speech¹ seemed to reflect the same basic concerns as those contained in the General’s letter. The Secretary stated he agreed with the General’s basic concept that the scope of world problems was greater than ten years ago when it had appeared possible that regional defense concepts alone would suffice. He added that he had pointed out in Senate testimony on the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949 that it was dangerous to limit security concepts. The establishment of fixed defense areas merely diverted the attack elsewhere. Since the establishment of NATO we had been obliged to plug up gaps in other parts of the world through additional pacts such as SEATO and the Baghdad Pact, and through bilaterals with Japan, Korea, the Republic of China, etc. Parenthetically the Secretary remarked that while we had favored the Baghdad Pact, we had never favored the inclusion of Iraq as this placed pressures on this Arab country which eventually led to a violent overthrow of the regime. Because of the inclusion of Iraq, we had not actually joined the pact, but since Iraq was no longer an active member, we were now collaborating more closely with the remaining members which embody the Northern Tier group.

The Secretary added that we had proposed in Paris last December liaison among the various defense pacts, but he was not sure this was adequate. He doubted it was practical to enlarge the NATO area, and believed we should develop means to combat our global concerns by means other than amending the NATO treaty.

Ambassador Alphand expressed the desirability of including coverage of Africa in the treaty area. The Secretary said it was doubtful the African countries would wish to be included. He noted the opposition of the Scandinavian countries to enlarging the treaty area, [less than 1 line of source text not declassified]. He said the General’s concept of the problem was acceptable but that the mechanics of carrying out his ideas seemed to present difficulties. He also said a tripartite directorate would cause difficulties, and mentioned especially Italian sensitivities. He said he would discuss this question with Fanfani in Rome tomorrow. He also thought it would be most unfortunate if the General’s ideas were to be made public.

Ambassador Alphand agreed publicity would be undesirable and that it would be misunderstood in Germany and Italy as well as in Africa and the Middle East if it appeared that there was an effort to impose a tripartite directorate. He did not believe this was the French intention. The Secretary noted that such an inference could however be drawn from the deGaulle memorandum.

The Secretary concluded that whatever talks were held on this subject should not become publicly known. He believed we would be ready for talks in some form by the beginning of the week. Ambassador Alphand said that he was gratified that he could report to Paris that we were studying the memorandum actively at the highest levels. The Secretary said he had discussed this matter with the President yesterday,² and that we would be ready to discuss it further with the French by early next week.

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 740.5/10–1758. Secret; Limit Distribution. Drafted by McBride.
1. For text of Spaak’s speech to the Atlantic Treaty Association dinner on September 27 in Boston, see Department of State Bulletin, October 20, 1958, pp. 607–611.
2. See Document 58.