Office of the Secretary
February 29, 1952
MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION
Participants: Senator Fullbright Mr. Acheson
The Secretary telephoned Senator Fulbright and said that he wanted to talk about the St. Lawrence Seaway bill and that he was hopeful that the Committee could vote the bill out so that our Canadian friends would not feel that we were backing away from it.
Senator Fulbright said frankly that he was committed to Chairman Connally not to vote the bill out. The Chairman feels strongly about the bill. Senator Fulbright said his reasons were as follows:
1. He understood that the Canadians were going ahead and build it themselves anyway.
2. He thought they were in a better shape financially than we were to do this.
3. He thought it was rather flattering to them to let them go ahead and do it on their own.
4. He said that he had been hearing so much recently about the waste in military expenditures on the bases in Africa and the Far North that he felt we could not enter into the building of the St. Lawrence on an efficient basis and therefore the Canadians should be allowed to go ahead and do it themselves. He reiterated that he thought they would do it much more efficiently than we would.
5. He said he was disturbed about the United States deficit and thought that we were in for a ten or 15-year pull of military preparedness and expenditure and did not think we could go on having big deficits year after year.
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In discussing this point, he said that when the military budget came up he had made up his mind to cut some of the military appropriations; that he personally would rather put the money in Point Four, Exchange of Students, et cetera. He was convinced that the military had thrown around money heedlessly. He thought the Canadians were managing their rearmament program much better than we were. He again cited the testimony he had been hearing on the poor construction in Africa and very high pay to laborers in the Far North. At this point Mr. Acheson said he would report to Mr. Lovett what Senator Fulbright had told him of his attitude.
6. Senator Fulbright said he was under the impression that whether we went into the St. Lawrence project or not would make no difference as to the distribution of power between the two countries. He understood that this was not a matter that the Canadians could arbitrarily decide because we still have joint control of the river. He thought the St. Lawrence project should be built and if it were a case of its not being built without United States participation he would vote for it. The Secretary pointed out that it would be very much better for the important Canadian-United States relations if we were to join in with them. Senator Fulbright said that he did not really think the question of whether we joined in with the Canadians was a vital matter and he was committed to Senator Connally to vote in committee against reporting it out. The Secretary said he thought it was important that the United States and Canada should continue to work together on border matters and that we would have more control if we joined in the project.
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