The Secretary of State to the Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union (Vyshinsky)1
The Secretary of State presents his compliments to His Excellency the Foreign Minister of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and has the honor to refer to the current Four Power negotiations in Paris.2
Since March 5 the representative of the United States together with the representatives of France and the United Kingdom, has been engaged in discussions with the representative of the Soviet Union in a preliminary conference in Paris. This preliminary conference was agreed upon as a result of an exchange of notes which ended with the note of the United States Government dated February 19, 1951,3 and the reply of the Soviet Government dated March 1, 1951.4 As indicated in that exchange of notes, the purpose of the conference was to reach agreement on a mutually acceptable agenda for a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the United States, United Kingdom, France and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Such an agreement has not yet been reached.
In the course of the discussions, the views of the four delegations were brought out and clarified. Considering that the discussions had provided all the elements necessary for agreement on an agenda, the representatives of the United States, United Kingdom and France presented to the Soviet representative on May 2 a, new proposal containing [Page 1149] three alternative agenda,5 The purpose of these three alternatives was to assure the possibility of the meeting of the four Foreign Ministers. It has been, and remains, the view of the United States Government that such a meeting is desirable in the interest of strengthening peace, which is the constant objective of the foreign policy of the United States.
In the course of the examination of these three alternatives the representatives in Paris were unable to reach full agreement. As regards the first alternative, the only difficulty was that the wording proposed by the three delegations for the sub-item concerning armaments was not acceptable to the Soviet delegation. The third alternative was not accepted by the Soviet delegation as a basis for agreement. In the second alternative, however, modifications were made in Item 1 and there is now agreement among the four delegations on the presentation of this item as well as on the inclusion of four other items in the agenda and on their wording. Apart from the final order of these four items which remains to be determined, but ought not to present major difficulties, agreement could have been reached on the second alternative if the Soviet delegation had not insisted on the acceptance of their proposal relating to the North Atlantic Treaty.
The United States Government for its part considers that the amount of agreement so far reached on the agenda makes possible a meeting of the four Foreign Ministers which would permit discussion among others of all topics proposed by the Soviet Government in the exchange of notes preceding the Paris conference and on the 5th and 7th of March at the outset of that conference.6 Accordingly, the United States Government is pleased to invite the four Foreign Ministers to meet in Washington and suggests that the meeting begin on July 23.7 The United States Government is prepared to participate in such a conference not only on the agenda (alternative B) described above, but also on either of the two other agenda (alternatives A and C). The texts of these three proposals are enclosed.8
The United States Government hopes to receive an early reply from the Soviet Government indicating its readiness to accept this invitation and stating which of the three agenda it finds acceptable for the purpose of holding a meeting of the four Foreign Ministers. Any further arrangements for the meeting could be worked out on receipt of a favorable reply from the Soviet Government.
- The source text is that printed in the Department of State Bulletin, June 11, 1951, p. 933. At the 64th session of the Representatives on May 31, Jessup handed a copy of the note to Gromyko. In Moscow copies were delivered to the Soviet Foreign Ministry by Representatives of the three Western Embassies, and on the same day, copies were released to the press. Jessup had previously transmitted an agreed draft on May 29, the text of which is indicated in footnotes 2 and 7, below, in telegram 7346, May 29, from Paris (396.1–PA/5–2951).↩
- This introductory paragraph was not present in the draft transmitted by Jessup on May 29.↩
- Ante, p. 1083.↩
- For the text of the Soviet note of March 1, see footnote 3, p. 1085.↩
- Ante, p. 1133.↩
- Regarding these topics, see telegram 5182, March 5, p. 1087: and footnote 2, p. 1091.↩
- This sentence in the May 29 draft read “Accordingly, the US Govt is pleased to invite the four FonMins to meet in Wash beginning July 23.”↩
- For the text of these three proposals which are not printed here, see p. 1133.↩