Office of the Historian

185. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, July 5, 1966.

SUBJECT

  • French Bilaterals

PARTICIPANTS

  • The Acting Secretary
  • Secretary McNamara
  • Mr. Acheson
  • Mr. Rostow
  • Mr. Schaetzel

Mr. Acheson said that he wanted to be very sure about the decision the President was alleged to have made with respect to the memorandum on bilateral negotiations between the United States and France, a decision he understood had been made at lunch on Thursday, June 28.2

Mr. Rostow said the President’s decision was clear, a point confirmed by Mr. Ball, which was to approve the memorandum. The President had raised specifically the question as to whether the U.S. would [Page 433] have any interest in any facilities in France if we were not sure of their availability. Secretary McNamara on that occasion said “No, not if we had to put a nickel into their maintenance.” The President approved that position.

In further discussion Mr. Acheson pursued this point, saying that we would clearly encounter in the future the suggestion that anything we got from the French “would be gravy and that we should be willing to compromise to get it.” Both Secretary McNamara and Mr. Rostow repeated that this was precisely the question on which the President had ruled. Secretary McNamara emphasized that any contingent rights would of course cost us money.

Mr. Acheson said that he was having trouble with people in both Departments who were wavering and seemed to be interested in seeking some compromise. Secretary McNamara said in this connection that an alternative version of the memorandum for the President had come to him, but he had rejected it. There should be no question about his position or therefore about the position of the Defense Department. He went on to say that he looked upon the bilateral negotiations as a probe urgent and necessary to test French intentions with respect to Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty. He expected nothing to result from it. Mr. Acheson said that he would subsequently be in touch with Secretary McNamara, the purpose of which would be to go over the supplementary instructions to Ambassador Bohlen.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL FR–US. Secret; Exdis. Drafted by Schaetzel and initialed by Acheson.↩
  2. The memorandum is the Enclosure to Document 181. The reference should be to the luncheon on Tuesday, June 28. No other record of the luncheon has been found.↩