Editorial Note
In conjunction with his attendance at the Seventh Session of the North Atlantic Council in Ottawa, Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi was invited to visit Washington for a series of conferences with the Secretary’ of State and the President. Arrangements were made for De Gasperi to arrive in Detroit on September 22 where he gave a speech before the Detroit Citizens Committee and the Detroit Foreign Policy Association which was carried on the radio. After a visit with the Italian-American Association on September 23, he left Detroit and arrived in Washington the following day where he was met by the President and the Secretary of State. At noon on September 24, De Gasperi addressed a joint session of Congress. His speech is printed in Department of State Bulletin, October 8, 1951, pages 566–568.
During the next 3 days, De Gasperi held 6 conferences with Department of State officials and the minutes of all of these meetings are printed below. As background for these meetings, preparatory papers were written on numerous subjects affecting United States-Italian [Page 675] relations. These papers, totaling 15 in number and identified as the IPM D-series, are not printed here. The preparatory papers as well as the minutes of the meetings are in CFM files, lot M–88, box 159, Conversations with the Italian Prime Minister; or Conference files, lot 59D95, CF 95.
Shortly before De Gasperi returned to Italy, he spoke at a dedication ceremony for the Equestrian Statues at the Arlington Memorial Bridge Plaza which was attended by the President and the Secretary of State. The four statues, modeled after the designs created by two American sculptors, Leo Friedlander and James E. Fraser, were cast in bronze by Italian craftsmen as a token of good will and as recognition of the economic assistance given Italy since the war by the United States. The dedication speech given by De Gasperi is printed in Department of State Bulletin, October 8, 1951, pages 564–566.