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

Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower papers, Whitman file

No. 775
Memorandum of Discussion at the 193d Meeting of the National Security Council on Tuesday, April 13, 1954¹

top secret
eyes only

April 13, 1954

Present at the 193rd Meeting of the Council were the President of the United States, presiding; the Vice President of the United States; the Acting Secretary of State; the Secretary of Defense; the Acting Director, Foreign Operations Administration; and the Director, Office of Defense Mobilization. Also present were the Secretary of the Treasury; the Attorney General (for Items 1 and 2); the Director, Bureau of the Budget; the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Director of Central Intelligence; the Assistant to the President; Mr. Cutler, Special Assistant to the President; the White House Staff Secretary; the Executive Secretary, NSC; and the Deputy Executive Secretary, NSC.

The following is a summary of the discussion at the meeting and the main points taken.

[Here follows discussion of items 1–4.]

5. U.S. Policy Toward Italy (NSC 5411² and 5411/1; Memo for NSC from Executive Secretary, same subject, dated April 6, 1954³) Mr. Cutler recalled the Council’s previous action in returning NSC 5411 to the Planning Board.⁴ The Planning Board had now submitted its revised report. It had adopted some of the revisions proposed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and had rejected others. With respect to paragraph 1–b, Mr. Culter called on Admiral Radford to comment on the JCS proposed revision. Admiral Radford replied that this revision spoke for itself. Secretary Smith commented that while he did not mean to be offensive, he thought that the JCS criticism of the Planning Board draft was about as delicate a collection of nit-picks as he had ever seen. The State Department was perfectly willing to accept all but one of the proposals made by the Joint Chiefs for changing paragraph 1. They could not agree, however, with the JCS revision of paragraph 1–e, which stated that the loss of Italy might require the abandonment of the present NATO strategic concept.

. . . . . . .

Secretary Smith then said he wished to take the occasion of this discussion of Italian policy, to bring up an important issue with respect to the Trieste negotiations. These had now reached a point where a settlement by Easter seemed possible. The Yugoslavs have come an enormous distance toward accepting reasonable terms. They had one sticking point: reparations from Italy. For the present they are demanding $50 million, which the Italians are violently rejecting. Secretary Smith said that the State Department felt that the $50 million figure was only a bargaining point, and that the Yugoslavs might well ultimately settle for $40 or even $30 million, probably in the form of goods. Accordingly, Thompson wants authority to go to the Italians and tell them that we will provide $20 million of extra economic assistance in return for their agreement with the Yugoslavs. Secretary Smith pointed out that if we could get this agreement on Trieste, Prime Minister Scelba will push at once for Italian ratification of EDC.…

The President stated that he was in hearty agreement with Secretary Smith’s proposal if the $20 million could be found. The Acting Director of FOA, Mr. Rand, stated that he thought FOA had the money this morning, although M. Monnet might well have got it by this afternoon. The President answered that it must be found somewhere. Settlement of the Trieste issue might change the whole situation in Europe.

The National Security Council:

a. Adopted the statement of policy contained in NSC 5411/1, subject to the following changes:

(1) Paragraph 1–b: Insert the word “Possibly” at the beginning, and delete the brackets and the footnote to which they refer.

(2) Paragraph 1–e: Delete the words within the brackets and the footnote thereto.

(3) Paragraph 1–f: Delete the brackets and the footnote to which they refer.

. . . . . . .

b. Agreed that the Department of State and the Foreign Operations Administration should be authorized to offer to make available to Italy additional economic aid approximating $20,000,000, beginning in Fiscal Year 1955, if needed to secure agreement on a Trieste settlement.

Note: NSC 5411/1, as amended, approved by the President, referred to the Operations Coordinating Board as the coordinating agency designated by the President, and circulated as NSC 5411/2. The action in b above subsequently transmitted to the Secretary of State and the Director, Foreign Operations Administration.

1. Drafted by Deputy Executive Secretary Gleason on Apr. 14.
2. See Document 769.
3. Neither printed. (S/S–NSC files, lot 63 D 351, NSC 5411 Series)
4. This action is described in Document 773.