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{
    "localId": "183390313",
    "label": "Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, the Foreign Minister of Luxembourg, and Others",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, the Foreign Minister of Luxembourg, and Others",
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        "Dean Acheson Papers",
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    "ocrText": "- 3 -\nARCHIVES NATIONAL RECORDA AND\nSERVICE\"\nobserved that this Government had been founded on the\nprinciple of decentralization of political authority,\nbut noted that with the progress in modern times,\neconomic integration had brought about a greater degree\nof centralized authority in government.\nMr. Bech drew a historic example from the fact that\nLuxembourg had existed as a grand duchy for some 75\nyears, during most of which time it had been in economic\nunion with Germany. He cited the fact that Germany had\nprospered since about 1865 and that this prosperity had,\nat the end of the 19th century, brought Germany to the\nheights of its existence as a nation. During all this\ntime Germany had been a federation without any real cen-\ntralized authority. Mr. Bech did not exclude the possi-\nbility that this concept was outmoded in modern times.\nNevertheless, he attached importance to the fact that it\nhad proved to be an efficient form of government.\nMr. Bech evidently saw real danger in the possibility\nof Germany joining as a unit in the Council of Europe. He\nthought that if Germany were included as an entity it\nwould exert a magnetic power which would attract all the\nother nations of Western Europe. France, being weak,\nwould be drawn to Germany and the others would follow\nsuit. The Western world would be confronted with some-\nwhat the same situation as in the early 19th century.\nI stated that as a result of Mr. Kennan's trip to\nGermany we had been trying to think of something that\ncould be done in order to solve the German problem. I\nasked if Mr. Bech agreed with the concept that the Germans\nthemselves should be given more responsibility as to ad-\nministration and conduct of internal affairs, but that\noccupation controls should be relaxed to the extent that\nthere was obtained, as Mr. Bech had described it, \"visible\noccupation\". Mr. Bech stated that he was entirely in\nagreement.\nR:WE:WJGalloway:ejf\nS R O R E E 1"
}