740.5/4–2553
The Secretary of State to the President 1
I expect Council meeting will conclude its business at noon tomorrow. We have only to agree on communiqué and date of next meeting tomorrow morning.
Results have been substantial and we have impressed our partners with fresh approach combined with continued firm support for common purposes. Agreement approved today for financing three-year infrastructure program is solid achievement and indicative of long-term attitude in our planning which we have stressed to our friends. We also agreed today on the firm 1953 force goals which had been developed in the Annual Review as well as on provisional goals for force goals 1954. The French and British in discussing the latter indicated strong doubts as to their ability actually to meet 1954 goals.
Atmosphere of Council meeting has been friendly but business-like. Pug Ismay has chaired meeting effectively.
We have had extended frank bilateral meetings with both the French and the British and will have one more session with each before I leave Paris.2 We have also scheduled a tripartite meeting tomorrow afternoon which will cover superficially wide range of topics.3 This more a concession to French for the prestige they feel it brings them than meeting which will produce any concrete results.
Charlie Wilson, George Humphrey, Harold Stassen and I have been in complete accord throughout. Draper is in the final stages of negotiation on German defense contribution including support costs and we may have satisfactory agreement by tomorrow night.
Best personal regards.
- The source text was transmitted in priority telegram Dulte 4 from Paris, Apr. 25 at 3 a.m. It bears the handwritten notation “Copy sent to W[hite] H[ouse] 4/14/53”.↩
- Regarding the bilateral talks with the French, see telegrams 5624, 5672, and 5679 all from Paris, pp. 369, 392, and 395; regarding the bilateral talks with the British, see telegrams 5623 and 5667, p. 371 and infra.↩
- Regarding the trilateral meeting, see telegram 5669, Apr. 26, p. 390.↩