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10/11/53 - Reel 5, track 1 - Page 1 MR. HARRIMAN: I might add that I felt that the Europeans completely misunderstood the position of our military committee and of our defense - and at the meetings of the defense ministers, because they could not @speak conceive that anyone would(seek, as one part of the United States Government; and I felt at The Hague, when this Medium Term Defense Plan was accepted in principle, subject to economic capabilities, it was done because the Europeans felt that we were prepared to do very much more than had even been considered or contemplated. The last subject I might touch on was the discussions we had with Mr. Attlee when he was in Washington the latter part of TRUMA 1950, wasn't it, Dean? S ARCHIVESE "NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN MR. ACHESON: Yes. Es CONTRACTY MR. HARRIMAN: about the British expanding their military effort. I think - I remember at that time the British were improving their position rather rapidly, and misjudged the permanency of it, and the Labour Government did lay down a program, a military program for the British which substantially doubled their expenditures, and was one in which the Conservatives, in spite of Churchill's desire to carry on the maximum program, have had great difficulty in maintaining. You will recall, Dean, our talk with Attlee at my house, when we explained to him that the United States was going to make a very much larger effort, and unless the British were to take the lead in doing something comparable to it, it would be very difficult to continue to get American public opinion to support the NATO effort. It seems to me that is about enough, unless there is some ether question. I think that what George