238. Memorandum of Conversation0
SUBJECT
- List of Military Materiel In Which Finnish Armed Forces Are Interested
PARTICIPANTS
- Richard R. Seppala, Ambassador of Finland
- William C. Burdett, Deputy Assistant Secretary, EUR
- William M. Owen, Officer in Charge, Swedish/Finnish Affairs
Ambassador Seppala referred to the British decision in favor of reinterpretation of the Finnish Peace Treaty, to the Secretary’s recent conversation with Foreign Minister Merikoski, and to the information conveyed to President Kekkonen by Ambassador Gufler that the United States would be willing to sell military materiel to Finland. Regarding the latter subject, Ambassador Seppala said that General Simelius, Chief of the Finnish Defense Forces, had brought with him on his current trip to the United States a list of military items in which the Finns were interested, and that the list had been presented to General Wheeler, Chief of Staff of the US Army, who was his host. The list was also discussed by General Simelius with General Maxwell Taylor, who had indicated that General Wheeler would be the point of contact in discussions regarding the list. The Ambassador said that he had not been aware of the list beforehand, but that no harm had been done.
Ambassador Seppala then said that he wished to inform the Department of State of the list and to give us exactly the same list. He said that he desired to stress that it was only a tentative list, and that he did not know how orthodox it was, but that it gave some indication of the items in which the Finnish armed forces were interested.
What they would actually purchase, he said, depended on the rather limited Finnish budgetary resources and the decisions yet to be made by the Cabinet or the Defense Council. He recalled that Generals Taylor and Wheeler had observed that on some items there would be no difficulty but that others would have to be studied by the Departments of State and Defense.
Mr. Burdett expressed appreciation to Ambassador Seppala for making the list available. He said that we had anticipated that General Simelius would be informed of this question, and asked how the matter had been left in the Pentagon in terms of the next step. Ambassador Seppala [Page 490] said that as he understood it there was not enough time while General Simelius was in Washington for a thorough study of the list to be made, but that when such a study had been completed Ambassador Seppala or his Military attache would be informed.
Mr. Burdett referred to the Ambassador’s earlier comment regarding the treaty reinterpretation question and noted that the Secretary had made certain comments on this matter during his conversation with Foreign Minister Merikoski on October 7. Mr. Burdett said that we have nothing to add on that subject and that the US offer of military equipment had been in our minds for some time and was not related to the other problem.
Ambassador Seppala reiterated that he hoped the list would be handled on a very confidential basis.
A brief discussion of various aspects of the present Cuban situation then followed, with Mr. Burdett providing current information regarding the quarantine and the other regulations regarding shipping to Cuba. Ambassador Seppala commented that the Finns were especially interested in the impact of developments on the Berlin situation.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 760E.56/10–2662. Secret. Drafted by Owen.↩