500.A/2–1347
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Deputy Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs (Ross)
When the Senator telephoned me at 1:30 p.m. he had not yet received the message I had given his secretary for him and I therefore repeated the gist of this message.1
On the question of the requirement in the resolution pending before the Security Council that the proposed new commission report “within three months,” the Senator said that he had been alert at yesterday’s meeting of the Security Council for any opportunity to straighten this language out. I gathered, however, that the British Government attached considerable importance to this language and the Senator said that he could not let his British colleague down. He said that Cadogan had given him in yesterday’s meeting of the Council very fine and wholehearted support in winning our case against the Soviet Union on excluding the terms of reference of the Atomic Energy Commission from the proposed new commission.
The Senator went on to say that if we said so he would, of course, move to strike out this language. He advised most strongly against this, however, and said that if he took this action the whole resolution would be laid wide open and we would run a very serious risk of losing the advantage we had gained with regard to the atomic energy aspects of the matter.
I told the Senator that the War and Navy Departments down here, including the two Secretaries, were particularly concerned lest this whole disarmament matter would sweep public opinion like a prairie fire in this country and, as a result, impair our national security through curtailed appropriations and the like. I asked him whether he thought it would be possible for him in today’s Security Council meeting [Page 415] to make it clear on the record what our position is on this three months clause.
The Senator said that he would be perfectly willing to do this.2