Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Ambassador of Norway Wilhelm Munthe de Morgenstierne, Prime Minister of Norway Einar Gerhardsen, and Andreas G. Ronhovde

S/S DEPARTMENT OF STATE 7742 419 143. Memorandum of Conversation eorf DATE: asonst May 28, 1951 SUBJECT: PARTICIPANTS: wilhelm Munthe de Morgenstierne, Ambassador of Norway Einar H. Gerhardsen, Prime Minister of Norway Secretary Acheson Nr. Ronhovde, BNA COPIES TO: s ARCHIVES NATIONAL RECORDS AND s/s SERVICA" 0 EUR BNA RA American Embassy, Oslo U. s, GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 16-61120-1 After the customary exchange of courtesies Mr. Gerhardsen brought up two matters which, he said, were of great interest to him. First, he referred to the fact that the Korean aggression had caught the Westorn countries unprepared and that consequently the military burden in Korea had fallen mainly on the United States which alone had forces nearby. He thought it highly desirable that plans should be made as soon as possible for an equitable sharing of burdens including proportional contributions of military contingents to meet a possible repetition of such aggression elsewhers. I replied that the U. S. Government fully under- 8 tood the reasons for the relative smallness of European military contributions in Korea and that we attsched equal importance, for example, to the task of the French forces in Indo-China and the British in Malaya. In answer to his question whether this meant that we were not interested in securing additional forças for Korea from other UN members, I said that I had been apeaking of national forces DECLASSIFIED in existence E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 3(D) OR (23) Dept. of State letter, 5-12:24 Ba ME. HC PARS Datre 6.25.96