Office of the Historian

740.5/8–2054

Prime Minister Churchill to the Secretary of State 1

secret
London, August 19, 1954.

[My Dear Foster:] Thank you so much for your message.2 If EDC falls through the impotence of the French Chamber we surely ought [Page 1051] to create some variant of NATO. I am having the problem studied here and may have some ideas to put before you and the President. I am distressed at Adenauer’s position. I feel we owe him almost a debt of honor after all the risks he has run and patience he has shown. It ought to be possible to devise some safeguards for a NATO arrangement.

2. Mendes-France has proposed to visit me here at Chartwell on his way back from Brussels on Saturday, Sunday or Monday. I shall do all I can on the lines on which we agreed.

Regards,

Winston Churchill
  1. Source text is that transmitted for information to the Embassy in the United Kingdom in telegram 1030 to London, Aug. 20.↩
  2. Presumably the message of Aug. 18, p. 1049.↩