Office of the Historian

740.00/3–150: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Embassy in Belgium 1

secret
Washington, March 1, 1950—7 p. m.

265. For Amb from Perkins.2 Have requested Bohlen3 communicate with you to get your evaluation present thinking and ideas of govt to which accredited re problem of Ger and into what org of Western Europe can Ger be integrated. Prefer info be based your knowledge and evaluation and that govts not be approached this matter this time. If however in evaluating info you feel necessary discuss with govt reps pls make clear you are doing so informally for your own info and not under instrs. Desirable Bohlen present this info at forthcoming mtg Douglas, Bruce, Dunn, Harriman, McCloy, Kirk with me4 which will be another in series of mtgs this group and Ger to be discussed along with other questions. [Perkins.]

Acheson
  1. Message drafted by G. Hayden Raynor, Director of the Office of British Commonwealth and Northern European Affairs. Repeated to London for Chargé Holmes as 936, to Paris for Minister Bohlen as 869, to The Hague as 191, and to Stockholm as 130, adding the following in the messages to The Hague, Stockholm, and Brussels: “Realize it will be preferable you present views personally that mtg and am writing explanation why that not feasible” and also adding to Stockholm: “In your case we are not interested so much in Swed views per se as in your evaluation of gen Scandinavian views.”↩
  2. George Perkins, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs.↩
  3. Charles E. Bohlen, Minister to France.↩
  4. Lewis W. Douglas, Ambassador to the United Kingdom; David K. Bruce, Ambassador to France; James C. Dunn, Ambassador to Italy; W. Averell Harriman, Special Representative in Europe for the Economic Cooperation Administration; John J. McCloy, United States High Commissioner for Germany; Alan G. Kirk, Ambassador to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The “forthcoming mtg” referred to was the meeting of United States Ambassadors at Rome on March 22–24, 1950, during which the roles of both the Council of Europe and the Federal Republic of Germany in the quest for Western European unity were frequently and extensively discussed. For further documentation on this meeting see pp. 795 ff.↩