May 14, 1951
Senator MacFarland called Mr. Acheson this afternoon regarding a request from Cosmopolitan Magazine for statements from a number of Senators as to how we can assure peace in our time. The Senator was concerned lest the six point proposal he was going to offer would embarrass the President, to whom he had submitted a similar proposal some time ago. The Senator thought that the President might be considering issuing a statement along the same lines. Mr. Acheson assured the Senator he did not believe the President intended to issue a statement of this nature.
A few minutes later the Senator called the Secretary back and read him the statement he proposed to submit. It included six points, the substance of which is below:
1. Denounce all aggression as a crime….
2. End the arms race by establishing a truce in the rearmament process of the Soviet Union and the anti-Soviet nations with gradual disarmament…
3. Removal of all barriers to the free flow of communications and transmissions of news, the exchange of ideas and travel among nations.
4. Operation of all atomic plants under international supervision in an effort to lift the standard of living of all peoples of the world.
5. Dissolve all international subversive organizations…
6. The permanent disarmament and neutralization of Germany and Japan under the supervision of the UN with a guarantee to the citizens of those countries that they will be free to elect their own government by secret ballot.
The Secretary told the Senator that he thought points 2 and 6 would give us quite a lot of trouble. He said that if we had a truce on armaments the Communists would win on this issue because that is exactly what they want. He made the same point with regard to item 6 on neutralization of Germany and Japan. The Senator asked the Secretary whether we really wanted to arm the Germans and Japanese. The Secretary said it seemed to him that this just had to be. The Secretary repeated great concern over the Senator issuing a statement including items 2 and 6. He offered to send someone up to assist the Senator or to go over the draft if the Senator would send it down. The Senator did not indicate any desire to follow either course.
Following the conversation the Secretary told me that he thought this might be quite serious and asked me to speak to someone in H about it. I told Ben Brown I thought someone from the Department should drop by to see the Senator or someone from his office, presumably on other business, and then offer assistance in preparation of this statement. He said he thought this would be possible and said he would have someone do this. I warned him to be tactful about it and be sure not to embarrass the Secretary.
L.D. Battle
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