CFM files, lot M 88, box 169, “Churchill–Eden Visit”
No. 466
Memorandum of a Meeting of
Secretary of State Dulles and Foreign Secretary Eden1
CEV MC–1
Participants:
-
United States
- The Secretary
- Mr. Merchant
-
United Kingdom
- Mr. Anthony Eden
- Sir Harold Caccia
- Christopher Soames
Subject:
- Germany and E.D.C.
At noon today while waiting to join the President and Prime Minister, there was a considerable discussion of the problem of Germany. The Secretary and Mr. Eden agreed that their estimates coincided on the importance of taking positive action in support of Adenauer if the French Assembly recessed this summer without ratifying EDC. They were in general agreement that a way should be found to separate the contractuals from the EDC, without prejudice to possible later action by the French Assembly in approving EDC in the fall. This would require some undertaking from Adenauer [Page 1077] that Germany would not unilaterally rearm during the period in which the fate of EDC would be settled. The Secretary explained the constitutional requirements with which we were faced in connection with modifying the Bonn Treaty so as to remove the link with the EDC Treaty.2 Mr. Eden was obviously unaware of this complication but recognized it when it was pointed out. There was agreement that Adenauer should be consulted before any approach to the French.
- Drafted on June 27. According to the notation on the source text this meeting took place at the White House at noon on June 26; however, the schedule of meetings indicates that on June 26 Dulles and Eden were meeting at the Department of State at noon. Presumably then, this meeting took place on June 25, immediately before that described in CEV MC–2, infra.↩
- For the text of the Convention on Relations Between the Three Powers and the Federal Republic of Germany (the Bonn Treaty), signed at Bonn on May 26, 1952, see vol. vii, Part 1, p. 112; for the text of the EDC Treaty, signed at Paris on May 27, 1952, see Documents (R.I.I.A.) for 1952, pp. 116–162.↩