Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Senator Estes Kefauver, Jack McFall, and Theodore Achilles

90460 DEPARTMENT OF STATE 722 s/5 Memorandum of Conversation 104 LDB DATE: BE TOENTIAL April 4, 1950 MA SUBJECT: North Atlantic Community PARTICIPANTS: Senator Kefauver (D), Tennessee The Secretary of State Assistant Secretary McFall T. C. Achilles, WE COPIES TO: s/s, U, G, UNA, EUR, RA, BNA, WE. 1-1492 I asked Senator Kefauver to call in the belief that a frank discussion with him would be preferable to a written reply to his letter of March 21 asking that we give further consideration to the Atlantic Union Resolution. I began by stating that we were working in the same direction as he was although not as fast as he would presumably like. The main purpose of the May Foreign Ministers meetings would be to work out with the British, French and other parties to the North Atlantic treaty a common approach to common problems. The precarious British financial position colored their thought on every subject, they were troubled by Commonwealth problems such as that between India and Pakistan, by sterling balances and by conflicting demands between domestic and foreign expenditure. Any "constitutional" approach to greater unity would, in my opinion, scare the British while much could be accomplished in achieving unity of purpose and action. I said that what we hoped to achieve in the North Atlantic community was maximum political unity with permanent executive direction, in the sense of reaching agreement on common policies and coordinated action to DECLASSIFIED E. o. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or - Dept. of State letter, (3.28.75 By NLT- Mc NARS Date 6.4.26