July 17, 1952
S/S
The Secretary called Mr. Harriman this morning and said that he thought some of the people in Mr. Harriman's office were being overly protective regarding Mr. Harriman's position and that of MSA in the Danish tanker matter. The Secretary said that we were determined that not only would delivery of the second tanker be avoided but that we were going to work toward preventing even the keel being laid. It was agreed that the bracketed portion of the attached excerpt from the secret annex to Mr. Harriman's letter to the President would be deleted, and that the word "embarrassment" in the third line would be changed to "difficulty".
Mr. Harriman agreed with the Secretary that Mrs. Anderson's memorandum (concerning her conversations with Foreign Minister Kraft) should not leave the Department but it was understood that Mr. Tannenwald would have access to the document provided that he did not take any extensive notes on it.
With regard to the question of following the precise wording of the press statement, to which the Danes will have agreed, the Secretary said he did not raise this matter with Mr. Harriman since he felt it was something that could be followed up as the matter developed.
S JKitchen:ma