Memorandum of Conversation Between Secretary of State Dean Acheson, the Ambassador of France, and Theodore Achilles

FOP SECRET s/s DEPARTMENT OF STATE 183 Fik DECLASSIFIED E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or 1333675 30 Dept. of State letter, Memorandum of Conversation By NLT- He : NARS Date 4-20-76 DATE: February 14, 1949 SUBJECT: North Atlantic Pact Restructed PARTICIPANTS: The French Ambassador The Secretary of State COPIES TO: T.C. Achilles, WE CTTT S/S c NME U/CFA EUR 1-1493 The Ambassador called at his request to discuss various matters. On the subject of the North Atlantic Pact, he said that his Government was seriously embarrassed by the continuing seal of secrecy on the substance of the negotiations while Reston and other American writers were discussing specific language. He said that his Government considered it essential both to discuss the negotiations with the Foreign Affairs Committees of the Assembly and Council of the Republic and to give guidance to the French press which might involve discussing actual language of the draft. I said that wise guidance would be useful. The American press had so far done most of the damage but the more that was printed at this stage about the language of the key Article, the more difficult it would be to obtain a really satisfactory text of that Article. I reminded him of the importance of this Treaty in linking the United States to Europe in security matters and suggested the wisdom of not rendering more difficult the task with the Senate, which must make the final decision as to whether the Treaty could be concluded or not. Unwise public discussion at this time might well make it impossible to conclude any treaty. He discussed Article 5 only in general terms and I made no comment. He reiterated the importance which his Government attached to including Algeria, but I did not comment. for OLONL IAD