Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Former Justice Owen D. Roberts

588 44 DECLASSIFIED E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E) Dept. of State letter, By NLT- HL NARS Date 4.20.76 to February 21, 1949. MEMORANDUN OF CO IVERSATION with Former Justice Owen D. Roberts Former Justice Owen D. Roberts called at his request. He wished to tell me about a project which he, will Clayton, a Mr. Moore who was with the Citizens' Committes for the Marshall Plan, Robert Patterson, and some others were en- gaged in. This project is to get resolutions introduced in Congress calling on the President to appoint delegates to talk with the Powers included in the Atlantie Pact on the subject of forming a Federation which would have many of the aspects of a federal sovereignty. Justice Roberts assured me that all of these men were in favor of the Atlantic treaty and that this was not a substitute for it, but was pushing the idea further. Justice Roberts went on to say that he and Mr. Clayton had discussed this matter with the President, assuring him of their support of the treaty and quoted the President as saying he did not see anything harmful or inconsistent to or with his purposes. I said to Justice Roberts that I wished he would dis- euss with his associates the question of not getting the ideawhich he had in mind before Congress during the pendency of the Atlantic treaty. I said that, while it was possiblyy true that there was nothing inconsistent between the treaty and his plan and that the treaty might well be regarded as a first step, nevertheless I felt that it would be a confusing naneuver at this time and would permit many people in the Senate who would like to find some justifiable reason to oppose the treaty to do so on the ground that it did not go far enough and would permit such people to favor instead an idea which would take many years to work out. In support of the statement that such a project as his would take consider- able time to effectuate, I talked to him as I had to the House and Senate Committees, pointing out the difficulties of political union in certain fields until the various nations involved had reached an approximately equal stability in the financial, economic and social fields. CONFIDENTIAL