Office of the Historian

Secretary’s Staff Meetings, lot 63 D 75, “Notes 61–120”

Notes of the Secretary’s Staff Meeting, February 10, 1958, 9:30 a.m.

secret
[Washington, February 10, 1953.]

Extract1

. . . . . . .

[Page 1579]

The Secretary’s Trip

3.
The Secretary stated that on the whole his trip with Mr. Stassen had been very successful. The talks with the officials of other governments had been cordial and extremely satisfactory. The Secretary said that he was hopeful that they had breathed some life into the progress of EDC. He noted that in certain instances an unfortunate picture had been given by the press in playing up less favorable but minor events.
4.
Mr. Matthews asked about the French reaction to the appointment of Jules Moch as rapporteur of the French Parliamentary Committee on the EDC The Secretary said that he was not too concerned about this event. He went on to explain that the strategy of the trip was to urge immediate ratification in countries other than France in order to reduce the current buck-passing of responsibility among the EDC signatories. The responsibility could then be placed solely on France for ratification, and particularly on the party in France principally causing delay in ratification.
5.
The Secretary said that the smaller countries he visited particularly had felt that they had been brought in on U.S. thinking more closely than had heretofore been the case. This, he believed, had a good effect on our relations there. Although he hesitated to forecast, he believed that the odds were 60 percent in favor of ratification of the EDC.
6.
In reply to a question, the Secretary said that he believed that Ollenhauer had received the U.S. arguments with an open mind and appeared to be persuaded. The others around Ollenhauer, however, seemed to be unshaken in their views.
7.
The Secretary noted that Mr. MacArthur was writing a summary of the trip which would be distributed to all those interested.2
  1. The omitted sections of the source text summarized discussion of such topics as British reaction to U.S.–Formosa policy, French rapprochement regarding the Contractual Agreements, the OEEC talks, immigration legislation, and General Juin’s pending visit to Korea to observe U.S. training of Korean troops.↩
  2. Not found in Department of State files.↩