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{
    "localId": "183392957",
    "label": "Memorandum of Telephone Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Secretary of the Army Frank Pace",
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    "id": "183392957",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Memorandum of Telephone Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Secretary of the Army Frank Pace",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/183392957",
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        "Dean Acheson Papers",
        "Secretary of State Files"
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    "productionDates": [
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            "day": 14,
            "logicalDate": "1950-12-14",
            "month": 12,
            "year": 1950
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{
    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
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    "ocrText": "-\n-2-\nThe Secretary then had quite a long discussion with Secre-\ntary Pace about the question which he has turned over to\nMr. Fisher as to just exactly what powers in connection with\nthis matter the representatives of the various governments at\nBrussels will have. Mr. Acheson said that it was quite clear to\nhim that it was impossible for Mr. Schuman, Mr. Bevin, himself,\nand the others who will be meeting at Brussels to appoint Gen-\neral\nEisenhower to anything. They will not have the authority to\nappoint anybody. That power probably resides only in the Presi-\ndent. He mentioned the article in the North Atlantic Treaty which\nsays that there shall be a council which will appoint various com-\nmittees including the defense committee; that this council hastthe\npower to recommend to governments implementing steps which\nshall be taken; therefore the Secretary thought that the essence\nof what would be accomplished at Brussels would be that the\nGovernments would recommend the appointment of a Supreme\nCommander and possibly who he should be. The Secretary thought\nthi S would constitute a request to the President of the United States\nto designate a distinguished officer under his command to be the\nSupreme Commander.\nIt is possible that the Governments could accept this recom-\nmendation. On the other recommendations which would come out\nof the Brussels meeting, such as ratification of medium term plans\nand other defense papers which include the matter of troops, it\nis probable that the Governments cannot accept the terms of the\nspecific regiments, etc. The Secretary said that he thought that\nthere was some discussion as to just exactly what level recommen-\ndations as to the size of the troop requirements from each country,\nhad been passed on. However, Mr. Acheson said that regardless of\nwhether this had been at the military level, all that we have is a\nrecommendation on the minimum forces necessary for the defense\nof Europe and the numbers that the various countries should con-\ntribute. There is a gap between what they contribute and what should\nbe contributed. In relation to material contributions which have been\nagreed upon, they are not even in existence in many cases. It is\no\ntherefore up to the countries to act in order to implement the recom-\nto\nmendations of the various NAT organizations. Mr. Pace agreed that\nthis gap between the NAT organization recommendations and per-\nformance by the countries of the recommendations was due to the fact\nthat there was no force upon the countries individually to implement\nthe recommendations.\nSEORET\nThat requires governmental action."
}