868.00/12–2647
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Henderson)
Sir John Balfour of the British Embassy came in this afternoon to see me. He handed to me the attached copy of Lord Inverchapel’s letter of December 26 to the Secretary1 and said that he would appreciate it if I could give him some idea, pending the reply of the Secretary, as to what our current thinking was with regard to the new developments in Greece. Sir John said that he was sure that the United States Government agreed with His Majesty’s Government that the establishment of a so-called free government in Greece was fraught with dangerous potentialities. The British Government was anxious to cooperate with us in this extremely important crisis.
Sir John also left with me a copy of the attached aide-mémoire2 setting forth the suggestion made by Mr. Tsaldaris that the United States might at this stage consider the sending of 5,000 or 10,000 troops to Greece coupled with a strong warning to the Slav bloc.
I told Sir John that the United States Government did recognize the serious potentialities of the situation resulting from the setting up of the so-called provisional government by Marcos and that the matter was receiving careful consideration by the highest officials of this Government. We were not at this stage, therefore, prepared to say what the attitude of the United States Government would be in this respect. It was our hope that within the next week decisions would be made which would enable us to take a clear-cut position. The British Government could be assured that the United States Government would consult with it before taking any public steps.
Sir John asked me if there was any possibility that the United States was prepared in certain eventualities to send troops to Greece. I said that I could not as yet reply to that question. It was obvious that [Page 465] a decision to despatch American troops to Greece could not be made without taking other decisions of a basic character.