February 15, 1949
MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION WITH THE PRESIDENT February 14, at 12:30 p.m.
Item 1
I handed the President a memorandum of my conversation with Foreign Minister Lange of Norway.
DAcheson
S:DAcheson:mlm
February 15, 1949
MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION WITH THE PRESIDENT February 14, at 12:30 p.m.
Item 2
I told the President that we had prepared and would send him yesterday a memorandum of his conversation with Prime Minister St. Laurent of Canada.
DAcheson
S:dacheson:mlm
February 15, 1949
MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION WITH THE PRESIDENT February 14, at 12:30 p.m.
Item 4
We discussed the letter from the Republican Members of the House to the President on the subject of China. I said that there seemed to be three possible courses: One was to make a non-committal reply, which would probably result in the publication of the correspondence and the charge that the Administration had no policy in China; the second course was to make a vigorous reply setting forth the facts. This inevitably would harm the Chinese Government. A third possible course was for me to get in touch with the signers of the letter and try to have an off-the-record and very frank discussion with them in the hope that that might serve in place of a written reply.
The President thought that the third course should be tried out. He also hoped to acknowledge the letter and, if possible, in the acknowledgment to say that he had asked me to talk with them. This necessitated some exploration by me first. This should be promptly pushed.
DAcheson
S:DAcheson:mlm
February 15, 1949
MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION WITH THE PRESIDENT February 14 at 12:30 p.m.
Item 5
I reported to the President the result of my conversation with the British Ambassador on the Wheat Agreement. He thought that we had made progress and hoped that we and the British could get together on the matter of price.
I told the President that it had been suggested to me that it might be advisable to have Senators Connally and Vandenberg meet with the Ambassadors when we tried to reach a final agreement on the draft of the Atlantic treaty. I said that any such step would require the full approval of the President in as much as it would be injecting the Senators into the negotiating function of the Executive Branch.
After discussing the matter thoroughly, the President concluded that I should not do this for the present or without speaking further with him on the matter.
DAcheson
S:DAcheson:mlm