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                               TMR EY                           1647

Secretary's Memoranda, Lot 53 D 4441
    Memorandum     of Conversation, by the Secretary of State 2


SECRET                               [WAsHINGTON,] April 12, 1949.
Participants: The Secretary---M1r. Acheson
               The. Turkish Foreign Minister-Neemeddin Sadak 3.
               Feridun Erkin, Turkish Ambassador
               Ambassador Edwin C. Wilson, S/P4
               J. C. Satterthwaite, Director, NEA
  After an   exchange of ,amenities during the course of which
Mr. Sadak said that he had been instructed byPresident Ismet Inonii
to transmit to the President and me the latter's warmest greetings,
the Minister said that with&quot; my permission he would review the posi-
tion in which Turkey found- itself as a result of the recent signature
of the North Atlantic Treaty.5 In March- 1947 the United States Gov-
ernment:t had announced its program in support of the independence
and security of Turkey.6 Subsequent :to -that time, this support was
confirmed through the very effective military assistance which Turkey
has received from the U.S.
  Later the formation of the Western Union took place, and then
came reports that negotiations would begin looking to a security
arrangement with the United States for the North Atlantic area,. In
the autumn of 194 8 conversations took place at Ankara with the U.S.
and U.K. Ambassadors in which the Turkish Government raised the
question of Turkey's: position in the contemplated security arrange-
ment. The Turkish Government was informed: in reply by written
memoranda received from , the U.S. 'and U.K. Ambassadors, that while
details of the proposed arrangement had not yet been formulated, the

  1This lot is a comprehensive chronological collection of the Secretary
of State's
memoranda and memoranda of conversation for the years 1947-1953, as main-
tained by the Executive Secretariat of the Department of State.
  'The full text of this memorandum of conversation was transmitted in a
circular airgrain of April 21 to 21 missions in Europe and the Middle East
(711.67/4-2149). The source text is not signed. The memorandum was drafted
by
Joseph C. Satterthwaite, Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African
Affairs, and Edwin C. Wilson, member of the Policy Planning Staff.
  I Foreign Minister Sadak, who was the first Turkish Foreign Minister to
visit
the United States, traveled to New York in early April for the opening of
the
Second Part of the Third Session of the United Nations General Assembly
(April 5-May 18). He visited Washington from April 12 to 15. Regarding his
subsequent caill on President Truman on April 13, see footnote I to the letter
from Ini5nii to Truman, March 31, p. 1646.
  4 Edwin C. Wilson, member of the Policy Planning Staff, previously served
as
Ambassador in.Turkey from 1O945 to 1948.
  5 For documentation on the negotiation of the North Atlantic Treaty, signed
in
Washington on April 4, see vol. IV, pp. 1 ft. Tbis documentation includes
many
discussions and exchanges during February, March, and April regarding the
pos-
sible inclusion of Turkey in the alliance.
  6Por documentation on .the ini~tiation of United states military and economic
assistance :to Greece and Turkey in 1947 (the Truman Doctrine), see Foreign
Relations, 1947, vol. v, pp. 1 ff.

 
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