Memorandum of Telephone Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Deputy Secretary of Defense William C. Foster

512 cont SECRET 231 INFURMATION July 21, 1952 Mr. Foster, Deputy Secretary of Defense, telephoned the Secretary this afternoon and said that Ambassador Bonnet had spent one and a half hours with him (presumably this morning) and had, in effect, charged that the United States Government had welshed on the agreement made with the French at Lisbon. The Ambassador repeatedly stated that Secretary Acheson and Mr. Lovett had not only promised additional Indochina- type offshore procurement, but also, in a letter to Bidault, had indicated that the United States could pick up a great deal more direct offshore procurement. Mr. Foster said he had told Bonnet that this was completely contrary to anything we had promised the French. The Secretary said that, of course, what happened at Lisbon was on record. Mr. Foster said that letters which Ambassado Dunn had written to Pinay (or Schuman) also substantiated our position. He added that, as a matter of fact, the situation was pretty good and actually went beyond the earlier expectations of the French, although Bonnet had declared, in his conversation with Foster, that this "means the end of the French Cabinet, EDC, - everything p' and that he would so have to report to Mr. Acheson. Mr. Foster had told the Ambassador he could not argue the point, neither would he accept that it was our responsibility. Foster had stated he would do everything he could if Bonnet believed there was a way of picking up anything approaching 623 million dollars worth of offshore procurement. Foster added he was disturbed by apparent leaks in the French press which put this problem on our doorstep. Mr. Foster said that during their talk Bonnet got out Bidault's letter of March 6 to Mr. Lovett, started to translate from it, and stopped when he apparently realized that Bidault's letter and Mr. Lovett's response did not prove his point. DECLASSIFIED STATE DEPT. <TR. 5.5.t3 SECRET Project NLT P2-4 SÉCURITY INT FORMATION By NLT- He NARS, Date 6-15-13