Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Ambassador of Luxembourg Hughes Le Gallais, and R. D. McClelland

CONSEDENTIAL - SECURITY INFORMATION 5768 S/S DEPARTMENT OF STATE 972 Memorandum of Conversation 180 DATE: June 6, 1952 SUBJECT: Luxembourg Air Agreement PARTICIPANTS: M. Le Gallais, Minister of Luxembourg The Secretary WE - Mr. McClelland COPIES TO: S EUR - irr. Perkins AV - Mr. Deak WE - Mr. Byington RA - Mr. Swihart Amembassy, Paris (for Regional A.A.) Aralegation, Inxembourg 1-1493 Alluding to the air agreement issue, the Minister remarked half-jokingly that I was an intrepid man and seemed willing to brave even the wrath of Luxembourg. I replied that I was indeed quite willing to do so in the case of a nice little country like Inxembourg, for whose representatives - M. Bech and Hugues Le Gallais himself - I had such affection. I informed the Minister that I hnd talked briefly to M. Bech in Paris, and had told him that as much as I regretted it I did not see how we could accede to the Luxembourg request for an air agreement. M. Bech had intimated that perhaps M. Bodson, by being a little too insistent in his presentation, might have harmed their case. I had replied that on the contrary I preferred a forceful arguing of one's case such as Bodson had done; and after his presentation I had myself gone over the whole subject thoroughly. I was convinced in the end that even if I were to insist here on the matter I did not see how it could ever ripen into an agreement. It was just not in the interests of the United States, With respect to the Congress, I pointed out that I could risk losing the entire ability to make these arrangements as executive agreements; and we would then be faced with them as treaties subject to a two-thirds majority in the Senate, The Minister seemed impressed by this and mentioned the current difficulties over the proposed Bricker amendment. He went on, however, to speak of the adverse press comment in Luxembourg over the air agreement and the disagreeable situation developing in this respect. DECLASSIFIED STATE DEPT. LTR. 5-5-73 I told EUR :WE :RDMcClelland: Project NLT n f2.4 By NLT NL NARS, Dote 6.15+3 CONF IDENTIAL