Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Ambassador of Great Britain Sir Oliver Franks

346 is 240 FOR SECRET (aug 25) colf 236 August 26, 1950 DECLASSIFIED E. o. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and S(D) or SD letter, 7.3.7 MEMORANDUM FOR S/S 78.49 AL © BLARS 5-27-24 The Secretary had dinner last night with Sir Oliver Franks. During the course of the conversation, Sir Oliver said that Mr. Bevin had put up as a matter of great urgency to him the question of having Mr. Attlee come to the United States for conversations with President Truman. Sir Oliver said that he had told Mr. Bevin that he didn't ARCHIVES think the suggestion made very much sense, unless we were sure SERVICE what we had in mind for the two to talk about and were sure that SOVERK say progress could be made if there were discussions. The Secretary said that he agreed with Sir Oliver and pointed out that such a meeting would cause great speculation. People would say that Mr. Attlee was simply coming over for more money, etc. It might also be said that he had come over to influence the United States elections, etc. The Secretary said that the thinking was that Mr. Attlee would come over before Mr. Bevin returned to the UK after the forthcoming tripartite and NATO meetings. This would mean the last of September. This would be very close to elections in this country which would lead to further confusion. The Secretary said we were all working on many points and so far as Western Europe was concerned that these questions would be considered at the forthcoming tripartite and NATO meetings. He was not clear as to just where the Attlee-Truman conversations would fit in. Sir Oliver asked if it might be possible to announce that there would be a meeting sometime in the future. The Secretary said he saw no point in saying what we would do until we knew what we wanted to do and could do. This matter was discussed in a meeting in the Secretary's office at which time Mr. Rusk said that since President Truman was considering addressing the General Assembly, Mr. Attlee might come over here for the same purpose. Since the Secretary reported the above, he has seen Sir Oliver Franks again. He said that he told Sir Oliver we had had a brief