Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, the Ambassador of Italy, and Theodore Achilles

SECRET SECDET 269 DEPARTMENT OF STATE DECLASSIFIED E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and S(D) or (E) 310 Dept. of State letter, A13.3.1973 7.33.25 Memorandum of Conversation By NLT- He , NARS Date 4.28.76 DATE: Dec. 5., 1949 SUBJECT: European Integration PARTICIPANTS The Secretary The Italian Ambassador can Mr. Achilles, WE s/s COPIES TO: EUR SERVICET s/p ECA GA Embassy Rome Embassy London Embassy Paris Frankfurt 1-1493 During a conversation on various matters, the Ambassador referred to the conversations in progress be- - tween the Italian, French and Benelux Governments concerning steps toward possible economic union. He mentioned the importance of integrating Germany with Western Europe but expressed the opinion that Germany should be invited to participate after the steps had been agreed upon rather than in the process of formulating them. He also referred to the importance of the United Kingdom parti- cipating to the greatest extent practicable. I said that we had real interest in the conversations to which he referred and were heartily in favor of any constructive measures leading toward closer economic integration in Western Europe. I said that the problem had security, political and economic aspects. The security aspect, in which Canada and the United States had a deep interest, had been satisfactorily dealt with in the Atlantic Pact. Canada and the United States had similarly deep interest in the economic aspect. The question of Germany, however, was a political one and urgent. I saw it as of even greater urgency than action in the economic field. The question was what framework Germany should be integrated into and the framework would clearly have to be larger than continental if Germany were not to dominate it. I had discussed these problems in Paris with Schuman and Bevin. The former's views were close to my own and I had hopes that Mr. Bevin was coming around in this direction since he had initially held them and had