DEPARTMENT OF STATE THE SECRETARY
April 26, 1949
I telephoned the President and told him that in considering the answers to questions which I might be asked in my testimony on the North Atlantic Treaty tomorrow, I had a matter which I wanted to put to him and which he might want to think over before answering me. I expected that I would be asked questions about the admission of new members and that the point of these questions would be to demonstrate that our involvement could be pushed further and further afield through the admission of such members as Spain, Russia, Poland. Our view was that it would be advisable to have the President authorize me to say that "when it comes to the admission of new members" he "would regard that as a major amendment of the Treaty and an extension of American responsibility which would require the advice and consent of the Senate" that "we would regard new members as we would regard an original ratification."
I went on to point out that in doing this, we would want to prevent getting into a position which would require new Senate action on actions taken by us under Article V; such a position would involve infringement of the President's powers as Commander-in-Chief. These powers were stated in the Constitution and the treaty did not change them. The Treaty might have been written either way - allowing the Senate to vote.
However, it seemed to us that the President's constitutional rights would be protected if we were to say that when a new country is brought in, a new treaty is created.
The President agreed that the bringing in of a new country would require a new treaty. He said he had been thinking about the matter himself and he was ready to say that we were "perfectly safe in going ahead on that basis."
I asked the President if he had any second thoughts on the subject before my testimony to let me know. Otherwise I would go ahead on this basis.