No. 328
Editorial Note
In preparation for the Truman–Churchill talks the Department of State early in December 1951 established a Steering Group with representatives of the Departments of State, Defense, Treasury, and Commerce, the White House, Bureau of the Budget, Mutual Security Agency, Economic Cooperation Administration, Office of Defense Mobilization, and the Psychological Strategy Board. The Steering Group was charged with the responsibility of assigning drafting officers for the preparation of position papers (sometimes called negotiating papers) for the talks and with reviewing and amending them for use by President Truman and Secretary Acheson.
During the course of its work the Steering Group approved seven series of papers and one series of memoranda, the former designated TCT D–1 through 7 and the latter designated TCT Memo 1 through 13. The TCT D–1 series dealt with problems concerning the Soviet Union; the TCT D–2 series dealt with topics concerning United States–United Kingdom relations; TCT D–3 and D–4 dealt with European and Middle Eastern questions respectively; while [Page 730] TCT D–5 and D–6 dealt with the Far East and NATO; the final series, TCT D–7, discussed raw materials and the British economic position. The TCT Memos considered the operation of the Steering Group, and were used as covering memoranda for miscellaneous documents relating to the talks.
The records of the Steering Group, sets of the TCT documents and memoranda, Department of Defense comments on various papers, minutes of the four formal meetings between President Truman and Prime Minister Churchill which follow, and six folders of miscellaneous documents relating to the talks are in CFM files, lot M 88, box 160. Similar, but less complete records on the talks, including the reports on the meetings between Secretary Acheson and Foreign Secretary Eden which also follow, are in Conference files, lot 59 D 95, CF s 99–100. Much smaller amounts of documentation on the talks are in files 741.13 and 611.41. The editors also were able to use the records of David S. Lloyd at the Harry S. Truman Library which included a set of his minutes for the four formal sessions.
The documentation that follows presents records of all the meetings which were found in the Department of State files. None of the position papers or memoranda is, however, presented here although two of them are printed in Foreign Relations, 1951, volume IV, Part 1, pages 980 and 985. For Secretary Acheson’s account of the talks, see Acheson, Present at the Creation, pages 594–603; for Foreign Secretary Eden’s brief account of the talks, see Eden, Full Circle, pages 20–21 and 39–41.