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

DA DEPARTMENT OF STATE CONI IDENTIAL 383 a 5 DECLASSIFIED E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and S(D) or (E) THE SECRETARY 403 Dept. of State litter, 10.2477 By NLTs H NARS Date 11-3076 MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION 4 19/52 WITH MR. JOHN FOSTER DULLES 12/24/62 I telephoned Mr. John Foster Dulles on the a fternoon of December 19 after my return from Paris, telling him that I thought it would be desirable for me to give him a full report of my talks in Paris with the Foreign Ministers both in and out of NATO meeting and of my impressions of the situations in both Germany and France and of the present status of the ratification of EDC. I made this call at the suggestion of Mr. Bruce, with whom Mr. Dulles had discussed the proposal for the early appointment of a High Commissioner to Germany Apparently he had in mind the pessiblity of appointing Mr. Robert Murphy. Mr. Dulles mentioned to me over the telephone that he would like to hear what I had to say before making an appointment and asked whether in the light of my discussions in Paris I would think the man referred to above would be a good appointment. I said that he was an excellent man, was doing an extremely good job where he was, was badly needed there, and I thoughi would not be so effective in Germany because of the great importance of German-French rlations and in view of the perhaps unfounded view in Paris that Mr. Murphy was not sympathetic with the French. Mr. Dulles said that he would be returning to Washington the following Wednesday; that no decision was contemplated immediately; and that he would discuss the matter further with me then. Mr. Dulles accordingly called upon me at the State Department on Wednesday December 24. I showed him my report of my conversation with Monnet; told him of the reports made to me by Reber and Debevoise and of the Chancellor's conviction that despite his troubles he would successfully surmount the court issue and would have the agreements ratified by the Bundestag in January and by the Bundesrat in February. I reported to him also my conversa- tion with Plevén and Schuman regarding action by the French Chamber following German ratification. I told him of the Chancellor's desire to have a High Commissioner appointed as soon as possible, who would be a strong man with whom he could work on intimate terms. I also told him of the Chancellor's desire for some expression by the new Adminis- tration of its support of EDC and that the latter should be in the framework of European unity and not merely as a military matter. I suggested that this might be done in a New Year's message from General Eisenhower to General Ridgway IDE