Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Western Europe and Canada, Volume VI, Part 2

DMS files, lot W–1444, “France”

No. 654
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Foreign Operations Administration (Stassen)¹

Washington, August 4, 1954.

In response to a telephonic request from the Ambassador for an appointment, no hour during the day being available Stassen stopped in at the French Embassy Residence.

The Ambassador stated that he was concerned about the amount of aid to France; he stated that the Indo-China program to save the other two and one-half countries in Indo-China from Communism could not be carried out without American assistance, and that the French Expeditionary Force would continue to be needed there if the remainder was to be saved.

Stassen reiterated what he had told Finance Minister Faure in Paris on July 13th,² that the entire situation was now subject to renegotiation.³

The Ambassador stated he realized that this was the case and he wished merely to stress the importance of it.

Stassen then suggested that the final action of Congress on the Fiscal 1955 Program would affect it and since action was also pending on EDC, he presumed the best course to follow was to await the pending action in the Parliaments of both countries, then a governmental position would be developed by the United States Government and negotiations would be carried on the latter part of August and during the month of September to reach a conclusion.

The Ambassador stated that the Prime Minister would be meeting the other EDC country representatives next week and that without doubt EDC would be brought up for decision in Parliament before the recess.

HES

1. It was noted on the source text that this conversation took place at the French Embassy residence on Aug. 3, at 7:15 p.m. Copies of this memorandum were sent to Dulles, Smith, MacArthur, Merchant, Lloyd, and FitzGerald.
2. This conversation was summarized in telegram Tousfo 24 from Paris, July 14. (FOA telegram files, lot W–130, Paris Tousfo)
3. This renegotiation was necessitated by the Armistice Agreement signed at the Geneva Conference on July 20 after weeks of deliberation; for documentation on these negotiations regarding Indochina, see vol. xvi, pp. 414 ff.