DEPARTMENT OF STATE Memorandum of Conversation
Date: May 16, 1951
Subject: Admission of Greece and Turkey into the NATO
Participants: The Italian Ambassador The Secretary of State Mr. Byington, WE
Copies to: S/S EUR NEA I/ISA RA WE American Embassy, Rome
During the course of the conversation, Ambassador Tarchiani said that his government felt that the best solution with regard to the desire of Greece and Turkey for a security arrangement was their admission as full members into NATO. He was gratified to find that the United States Government's views were along the same lines. He said that it seemed to him any alternative arrangement such as an Eastern Mediterranean Pact became far too complicated in terms of who was to be in it to make any practicable result obtainable. Both Greece and Turkey were serious peoples and with good armies and the simplest solution seemed to him to take them into the family as soon as possible. He certainly thought it was most undesirable to have a neutral Turkey in the present world situation.
I said that I thought the publicity on this subject had been most unfortunate. We had wished to consult with the British and French and the Italians as well as the other members of the NATO informally and confidentially on this matter and that it had not been helped by the publicity which had been created. I said that I agreed with his views, but that further conversations would have to take place among the Council of Deputies.
EUR:WE:HMByington,Jr:fa