Editorial Note
While in London from February 13 to 19 for discussions on a wide range of issues with the British and French, Secretary Acheson and British Prime Minister Churchill resolved a difference over a speech the Prime Minister was to give in Parliament replying to the Labour Party’s criticisms of British Government support of United States policy in Korea. Churchill wished to show that when in power the Labour Government had agreed to the same policies in May 1951 which it was criticizing when out of office. (For pertinent documentation, see Foreign Relations, 1951, volume VII, Part 1.) In the process, however, Churchill would have revealed the essence of top secret military contingency plans. To this Acheson objected, and through the night he and Nitze made revisions to an advance copy of the speech which Churchill had provided. On the following day Churchill agreed to Acheson’s changes. A copy of Churchill’s speech with Nitze’s and Acheson’s handwritten revisions and a copy of a letter from Acheson to Churchill, February 19, explaining the changes, can be found in the Acheson papers, Truman Library. Another copy of that letter is located in Conference files, lot 59 D 95, CF 101. The incident over the speech is also described in Acheson, Present at the Creation, pages 618–621 and Sketches From Life of Men I Have Known, pages 71–75.
From February 20 to 25, Acheson headed the United States Delegation to the Ninth Session of the North Atlantic Council in Lisbon, where Korean matters were not discussed.