My dear President Coty
:1 As we move in both our countries into the final stages of ratification of the Paris Agreements, I have been considering how we might most appropriately solemnize this great step toward strength and unity of the Atlantic Community.2
I am struck by the fact that all fifteen nations which are, in one way or another, concerned with the restoration of sovereignty to the Federal Republic of Germany and its admission to Western European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will have completed their parliamentary actions by the tenth anniversary of the surrender of Hitler's Germany.3 No doubt you have reached the same conclusion as I that for political reasons May 8, the tenth anniversary of V-E Day, marks the day beyond which it will be exceedingly unwise (not be possible) to continue the occupation of Germany.
With these thoughts in mind may I venture to suggest that France play host to a meeting or a series of meetings in early May which would dramatize for all our peoples what we have achieved in the past ten years. Such a meeting would likewise enable us to lay our plans for a meeting with the Soviets in a climactic (sustained) effort to ease tensions and to reduce the risk of war.4
I would be happy to come to Paris in response to an invitation for such a purpose. My thought is that you might invite the Governments of the United Kingdom and of the New Republic of Germany to be appropriately represented. I would suppose that such delegations would include Sir Winston Churchill and Chancellor Adenauer, while I would of course be accompanied by Secretary of State Dulles. The visiting delegations could thus, with you, exchange the instruments of ratification of the treaties which your Parliament and our Senate are now dealing with.
In advance of such a ceremony I assume that the Foreign Ministers of our four countries should meet with a view to preparing for our consideration basic proposals regarding the unification of Germany in freedom, the conclusion of the State Treaty for Austria, and the general security of Europe as a whole.5
On such an agreed basis we might then call on the Soviet Union to meet with us in an earnest effort to solve these problems. I would think that it would also be desirable, at some point during the proceedings, to convoke an extraordinary meeting of the Ministerial Council of the North Atlantic Treaty which we four Heads of States or of Governments might attend.
It seems to me peculiarly fitting that we should come together in your country to signalize the return of Germany as a sovereign member of the family of nations and to mark the new era in Franco-German relations which will be opened with German entry into WEU and NATO. Moreover, it would be an occasion which would strikingly demonstrate to all the world the major role that France is playing in the achievement of that resolution, strength, and unity which we have so long sought and which is now in our grasp. I assure you that I personally and the citizens of this country would enthusiastically join the rest of the free world in applauding the increased prestige and respect that the sponsoring of such a meeting would bring to your great country.6
I have long held the conviction that on some basis such as I have so sketchily outlined can we look forward with confidence to an enduring era of peace and prosperity for all. I hope you share that view.
