e1norand m o

1ng of th

B1ld rberg Steer1ng Group,

D ce111ber 6 and 7, 1954, 1n Paris

The firs

mee ing was held dur ing the day of December 6, . . . .~ 1

Prince Bernhard as cha1"rman.

Th .. ere w ere presen

e herlands

Mr. Paul Rykens o f the

r. Pa l Van Z eeland of Belgiutrt

Mr. R udof Mueller of Gern1any Mr . Ole Kraft of Denmark Sir Colin Gubbins of the Uni ed Kingdom

Mr. Fanfani and the Italian Atnbassador to France, Mr . Quaroni, of Italy

Mr. Pinay of France

Messrs. Ball, F e rguson and Li tlejohn of th United States

Dr. R The first rna

inger and his as sis ant, Mr. Pon'lian . r discussed by h ings, and af r h Group was the im

and n
d
0

lo a ion of subsequen me

majority Am rican pr fe
n

for (bu no 1ns1s

o hold a
in he

nee on) a Fall rne ting had b

.. pr ss d

was a
11

cond con r n po sibl .

1ng 1n

19
l

n1 ed S a es, i

All h

Eu op

pr

ha

some kind of a rr1

Spring was also d sirabl , and h

P

Group

decided o have a small r

on!er n

on th

18 h of

r h, bo h

or h

pu pas

of discuss1n ence.

subs ant1v

probl ms and p r

c in

plans fo

all conf

The Spring meeting is expec ed o be held in Stresa and ne

nu:r11ber of par icipants vlill b

liinited to approximately 40, composed of Invitatio11s to this Spring m e -

abou 30 Europeans and 5 to 10 Americans.

ing would be issued by Prince Bert1har d together with Mr. Coleman and Mr. Van Zeeland and our Italian friends . It was further agre d that for th purpose of future conferences
1

son1eone frorn Turkey would be added to he G roup and lv1.r. McGhee s suggestion for the present Turkish foreign n1i11ister was a cepted subje t check being made as to th present Turkish president. a ceptabil1 y of his name on the part of the

o a

If he Turkish foreign : rninister is o be in,,i ed,

the invitation, but this invitation would b pr -

Prince Bernhard will issu

ceded by an informal approa h on the part of Mr. M Ghee. It was also agr ed that a Canadian member should b the Group, and the Canadian for ign minist r will b Mr. Ball e press d he hop ask d add d o

o sugg s Spring m Uni

som on . ting, d Sta s

tha prior to th

someone on the Unit d Sa es sid

could vistt th

m mb rs of th

Group and prepare synops s of h i be avatlable for use a

attend.

v1ews on the variou

is su s, whi h could to

individual was abl

1

This was r gard d as a us ful d

by h

Europ an , and h y a r

considering si1nilar a tton.

T h e d isc u ssio n discuss e d a

h n turne d t o h

subjec s w hich should be

t h e Spri n g and Fall m eetings .

Mr. B all sai d he thought it

might b e use ul t o s ee if a point of view could b e found wit hin wh ich v ario us
subjects could be rais e d .

He said he felt t hat Arnerica had come t o t he con-

elusion hat co-existence of some sor t had becorne a necessity rat her han a condition. This had come about because of the close study of hydrogen

warfare, and he had the irnpre s sion that rnost governments had had a similar

e perience.

He also added that he thought there was an assumption in

present thinking that the Soviet leaders themselves had begun to apprecia e the in1plications of a future armed conflict on a world wide basis and wanted

to avoid such a military collision.

Mr. Ball mentioned that the United States had reformulated the
concept of ''p aceful

a-existence" and now talked of it as 'comp

1 1

co-existence", which means that the United States would ace pt th

a long period of cold war during whi h our task would b

id a of
h

to fight for H

uncomm1 t d ar as of Asia, th
that, in larg
w

Middle East, and Afri a.

point d ou

measur , h s

ar

s includ d th

und rd v lop d ar as as

11.
Mr . all al o aid ha h though Am ri an

that Europ naturally

would hav

o ak

a r al par 1n his ta k b
n ,.., ...., rpris .

aus

th ir int r

s s

o1n td d in such an Mr. Ball

atd that h

f 1 th

subJ su h

t of

11

omp titi ~ co- x1 rnal communi m,

ton1a 1 ally ra1s d rnos o{ h

sin

communist infiltration in uncominitted areas, colonial problems, d evelop ed areas, etc.

nd r-

Fin ally he pointed o ut that he felt a subject which could bear ve ry c lo se co n si d e ration was the p e a cetime use of atomic energy. This

c ould d eve lop ve ry rap i dly a n d c o uld be o f major irr1portance in a period

of compet iti v e c o-existence, and he felt w e shou ld have p resent at our cotning mee t ings a fe w p e ople w h o k n e w this subject w e l l. I t was agr e ed t hat t h e p h r ase "c o tnp etitive co - existence 11 was
a difficult one to translate into Fr e n c h, and th e d iscussion i nd icated tha

there was s ome confusion in the n1inds of the Europe a n s a bout i t .

Si n ce

there seemed to be considerable difficulty with the phrase , it w as a gr ee d

that it would be preferable to talk about the fight for the allegi a n ce of the

uncoJnmitted people. which would e1nbrace the uncomn"litted peoples o f Asia, the Middle East and Africa as well as uncotntnitted individua l s a nd groups in Europe and elsewhere.

Mr. Mueller felt that so far as Europe was concerned, so c i a l mobility on the continent of Europe was the most important element in c o1n-

ttina con1muniam.
t economic
felt
coul

Mr. Fanfani expressed the view that it was n e essary

asiatance be preceded by political assistance, because he

t the experience in Italy had demonstrated that political de1noc racy

be more important than economic assistance, although he agr ed that

ic aaiatance

a probably necessary in most cases.

Mr. Pi nay was d. lsturbed about the present

s1tua 1on 1n wh 1

under our democratic sys ems

Vlith their
d

.
' we perrnl the Russians to go forward openly

propagan a, and he felt this was a great danger in the cold war. This led to a discussion of the problems

of combatting cornmun1S1n 1n
to the Spring n1e eting a

different countries, and it was agreed that pr 1 r 0

study would be rnade of the rnethods employed by the communists in each of

the European coun ries and the United Sta es, together with a conside a ion

of the m

ans of comba ing sue

Ther

penetration.

was some dtscussion of th

difficulty of iinposing restric-

tions under a democracy and se,reral znen1ber s e ./ presse d the view that insisting upon reciproci y with the Soviet Union was perhaps the mos useful
way either to litnit Russian ac ivities or increase our own.

The 1neeting agreed that w e needed some general proposi ion

under which a discussion could be held on the offensive and defensive aspects of a protracted cold war, and Prince Bernhard formulated he agenda as coming under the general heading of the fight or the allegiance of the

uncotnmitted peoples, giving firs priority to Europe, second to th

developed and uncotnmit d areas of Asia, the Middl

under-

East and A rica and He add d that we should

third, the countries already b hind the Iron Curtain.

take up ways and means of conducting this fight for the allegianc , including the ideological and economic aspects..

He also f 1 that we would ha e to

direct attention to the overseas territories both frorn the ideological and the
econom1c poin of view.

A dls ussion th n ollow d on th onference and ffort was mad ach to k

0

mb r h p o
10n

t
P h

E rop ans was ask d o mak suggest1ons o a min1mum and h Th

An

um

r o

suggestions totalled approximately 30. United States said that m mb rs of h be invited to a ttend the Sprmg me

m mb r s repr senting th

u nit

d S ates Ste r1ng Group would

unabl

mg and if sev ral of th m wer

to attend, additional people of varied 1nterests would be includ d.

It was agr

d to

stablish two ad ho
The f1rs

omm1 t

o pr par

mat rial for th

Spr1ng m

ting.

group w1ll d al with th

of un ommitt d p opl s,

ideologi al asp cts of th

fight for th

all gianc

and will hav

conomi

as it

h 1rman Mr. Fanfani.

Th

second w1ll d a l wi h h
rnhard, a si

asp cts, and will have as its

hairman Pr1nc

by Mr. Ryk ns.

The m ting d c1ded that th r would b an Am ri n
v1

ch irman of each group to b m

s 1 ct d by Mr. Col man and hat th

h ir-

n and vice chairman should 1nvit Group. Th cha1rm n would b

xpr ssions of vi w from any m mb rs p

ted to ass mbl th
n~t
Vl

of th

WS,

w 11 as their own, in pap rs for distribution prior to th

whi h would s rv
as a basis for discussion.

Spring

1ng,

Th

following morn1ng a small m ch irmanship of Prin

t1ng was h ld in th

ltali n of th

Emb s y under th

B rnhard to go ov r som Th r
w r

ils of th

discus ion of th

prec ding day.

pr s nt th

Ital1an Ambassador
and 1\1r . Poxr1ian.

'

This rneet1ng d 1 cus se d th e reports to be prepared pr1or o

the

Spring rneetmg and Prmce Bernhard expressed the view that th

1n

chananuary

men of the two committees s auld have

opinions from various mernbers of he

the1r hands by the end of It

roup.

as the sense of he o repor s by

meeting that these indiv1dual op1nions would b

cornbined 1n t

the chairmen and the vice chatrmen of the two colntnittees and that only the corr1bined reports would be

1rculated.

Prince Bernhard also rerninded the members that each country

would be expected o se ure a r por

on comrnunist methods in l1at country Dr. Rettnger indi a ed

as well as the methods being used to cornbat hem.

that Mr. McGhee had of

red o rnak- a report on the Middle East along

these lines, and it was agreed hat such a report was desirable and should

be sent to Mr. Fanfani.

Pr1n e Bernhard also asked that a report of this

kind be made on Japan, and

tion of such a report.

r. L1ttlejohn agr ed to arrange for the prepara-

There followed a dis ussion of the financial asp c s of the work,

and it was emphasized that,

ith respe t

o th

Fall meeting in the United Th

osts of th

States, travel should b

pa1d by tll

Europ ans.

Spring

conference have not b en estimated in detail, bu it was assumed that he

United States could pay part o the cost of su 11 a confer en e, and Dr. Retinger

indicated that he would like to have at 1 ast some of the funds to be suppli d

from the United States available quickly.