Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Ambassador of France Henri Bonnet, James Bonbright, Geoffrey Lewis, and Mr. Ruffin

4183 DEPARTMENT OF STATE Memorandum of Conversation 10 925 DATE: March 4, 1952 SUBJECT: NATO Secretary General Ambassador Bonnet PARTICIPANTS: The Secretary of State to M. Ruffin, French Embassy Mr. Lewis, GER Mr. Bonbright, EUR COPIES TO: S - Mr. Battle G - Mr. Matthews . RA - Mr. Martin WE U. s. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 16-61120-1 M. Bonnet came to see me at 3 o'clock this afternoon on another matter and I took the occasion to ask him to communicate with M. Schuman regarding the Secretary General of NATO. I said that according to our Deputy, Mr. Spofford, all the NATO countries with the exception of France are now prepared to accept Mr. Stikker for this position. I pointed out that it was now a week since this matter had remained open as a result of the refusal of Sir Oliver Franks to take the job. Mr. Pearson and Mr. Lange had also indicated that they were not available. The Deputies are to meet in London tomorrow morning and I very much felt that unless agreement could be, reached now, Mr. Stikker might withdraw and it would become increasingly difficult to fill the position. We understood that Mr. Stikker was on the French list of candidates which M. Bonnet had given us and I therefore hoped that M. Schuman would find it possible to get definite instructions to M. Alphand in time for the Deputies meeting tomorrow. The Ambassador was obviously not up-to-date on the latest news in this matter but readily agreed to get off a DECLASSIFTED E 6. L1652, Sec. 3(E) and S(D) or m 5-12-20 Dip of State letter, Ex HC MAR3 Data 7-14-16