Office of the Historian

740.5/7–351

The Department of State to the British Embassy 1

confidential

Aide-Mémoire

The Government of the United States has studied the Aide-Mémoire left by the British Embassy with the Department of State on June 13, 1951, No. 23147/68/51, concerning the adherence of Greece and Turkey to the North Atlantic Treaty, responding to the Aide-Mémoire left by the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom with the Foreign Office on May 15, 1951.

The United States is in full agreement that a thorough examination should be undertaken of the political and military issues involved as in fact, is being done in the Council of Deputies as to political questions and by the Standing Group on military aspects. The alternative suggested in the third paragraph of the Embassy’s Aide-Mémoire2 is one which was carefully considered by the United States Government before reaching its decision that the adherence of Greece and Turkey to the North Atlantic Treaty constituted the preferable solution.

Ambassador Spofford, the United States Representative on the Council of Deputies, in which discussion of this whole question is now taking place, is fully informed as to the reasons which led this Government to discard this alternative and would be fully prepared to discuss this or other aspects of the question with representatives of the British Government in London at any time.

The proposal of this Government with respect to the adherence of Greece and Turkey to the North Atlantic Treaty was put forward on its own merits without reference to the question of the possible adherence of Spain.

[Page 546]

As the Embassy is aware, discussions have been taking place in Washington with respect to the Command problem.

Washington, July 3, 1951.

Secretary of State Dean Acheson

 [Page [547]]

W. Averell Harriman

David K. E. Bruce

 [Page [548]]

Charles M. Spofford

Ridgway B. Knight

 [Page [549]]

Walter S. Gifford

George Perkins

 [Page [550]]

Secretary of Defense Marshall, President Truman, and Secretary of State Acheson see General Eisenhower off on his trip to Europe, January 6, 1951.

Ambassador Dunn and Italian Prime Minister de Gasperi welcome Secretary of State Acheson to Rome, November 23, 1951.
  1. Drafted by Wolf of RA and Raynor of BNA. Circulated for clearance on June 29, and cleared with GTI, RA, and OSD.↩
  2. The offer of a unilateral security guarantee to Turkey by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France.↩