Memorandum of Telephone Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson and John Foster Dulles

H . 9 DEPARTMENT OF STATE SECRET DECLASSIFIED III E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E) Dept. of State letter, Aug 12-23-3" THE SECRETARY Bg NLT- AS , NARS Date 6.4.76 CURT ARCHIVES "MATIONAL RECORDS AND April 6, 1950 SERVICE** The Secretary telephoned John Foster Dulles this morning to tell him that he had talked with the President last night and reported his conversations with Mr. Dulles. Mr. Acheson said the President was extremely pleased with the whole thing, and that he told the President we planned to put out a release announc - ing Mr. Dulles' appointment at eleven b'clock this morning unless we had word from Mr. Dulles to the contrary. The Secretary said that in view of leaks and reports in the press this morning, he would like to get the release out now. Mr. Dulles asked the Secretary if Dean Rusk had passed on to him his message. The Secretary said Mr. Rusk had told him that Mr. Dulles had spoken with Governor Dewey and that Mr. Dulles had suggested we might put more in the release. Heindicated my what he Airlter had in mind was something that would correspond to Ambassador at Large, something that would give a litile clearer picture of his status. The Secretary said he hesitated to reopen the matter since he had cleared the whole thing up in talks with the President. The Secretary said that the whole thing was quite complicated, and that we didn't want to raise any complication with John Cooper, who had been appointed:recently as Consultant. The question would be raised if Mr. Dulles' appointment were different from that of Cooper. The Secretary said that after Mr. Cooper left, we could clear this matter up. Mr. Dulles said that he had been in touch with Senator Vandenberg and Senator Smith, who along with Governor Dewey felt that the Re - publican Party was selling out awfully cheap. Mr. Dulles said he personally was not concerned about rank but that the three gentle - men he mentioned were all concerned about what newspaper com- - ment it would provoke. Mr. Dulles thought perhaps if the word "top" were inserted somewhere, that would take care of it. The Secretary mentioned again that he hesitated to reopen the matter again with the President and that if he changed the release now, it would cause the President a legitimate worry. Mr. Dulles then asked what he should say to the press when asked what his status was. The Secretary suggested he might say that he was one of the top advisers along with Dr. Jessup and SECRET