Memorandum of Telephone Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Senator J. William Fulbright

923 of OFFICE OF "NATIONAL RECDRDS 65 ARCHIVES AND THE SECRETARY RESTRICTED February 29, 1952 MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION Participants: Senator Fulbright Mr. Acheson The Secretary telephoned Senator Fulb. ight and said that he wanted to talk about the St. Lawrence Seaway bill and that he was hopeful that the Committee could vote the bill out so that our Canadian friends would not feel that we were backing away from it. Senator Fulbright said frankly that he was committed to Chairman Connally not to vote the bill out. The Chairman feels strongly about the bill. Senator Fulbright said his reasons were as follows: 1. He understood that the Canadians were going ahead and build it themselves anyway. 2. He thought they were in a better shape financially than we were to do this. 3. He thought it was rather flattering to them to let them go ahead and do it on their own. 4. He said that he had been hearing so much recently about the waste in military expenditures on the bases in Africa and the Far North that he felt we could not enter into the building of the St. Lawrence on an efficient basis and that therefore the Canadians should be allowed to go ahead and do it themselves. He reiterated that he thought they would do it much more efficiently than we would. 5. He said he was disturbed about the United States deficit and thought that we were in for a ten- or 15-year pull of military preparedness and expenditure and did not think we could go on having big deficits year after year. DECLASSIFIED In discussing E.0. 10501