PERSONAL - EYES ONLY FOR THE SECRETARY
AMERICAN EMBASSY LONDON May 23, 1950
My dear Dean:
You will doubtless remember our conversation the night before you started on your homeward journey in regard to operation Bisbee.
I have naturally thought a great deal about the matter. It isn't necessary, I am sure, to repeat what I said before-that I do not want this particular responsibility, nor indeed any other responsibility. I am here only because of you, the President and the state of world affairs, but principally because of you and the President. With this as an unnecessary and redundant preamble, I can say that I have some very real deficiencies. Moreover, I do not know how long my health would stand up under the stress of doing both jobs; that is to say, the one I now have and the new one. If, however, you thought that my doing it would be the best solution of the question, there are certain general conditions under which I would be prepared to do it for a reasonable period.
To outline these general conditions in writing would require a memorandum which would be longer than you would want to read and that I would want to write. One of them is that in undertaking it, I do so in partnership, as it were, with a powerful person to act as backstop in Washington and to move between London and Washington at irregular intervals. Regardless of who undertakes to do the job, I think this sort of an arrangement is necessary in order, in the first place, to get the Council of Deputies off the ground and into the air; and in the second place, to assure that the positions taken by the Chairman of the Council with the Deputies had the full support of Washington. I would not be concerned whether the person who will act as backstop in Washington was Chairman and I was Vice Chairman to keep the matter in the air while he was in Washington. This is a matter of title and not of substance.
If, however, someone other than the Ambassador to London becomes the Chairman, then I think the terms of reference of the Chairman should be such as to make it quite clear that our diplomatic channels of communicating with the governments be not disturbed or diminished in importance.
I have taken the liberty of discussing the situation-no matter how premature-with Julius and Tick Bonesteel. Tick, I think, knows my general line of thought and, I believe, concurs in it. Julius, too, is, I think, in complete agreement. In fact, some of the views that are now mine originated with them. Will you, therefore, discuss this matter with Tick if the idea still has any attraction to you at all?
I hope you don't mind my discussing the matter with Julius and Tick. I have done so with no one else here, and with them only as my alter egos and under the strictest injunction of complete confidence. It seemed to me to be necessary to explore two or three angles of the problem with other minds which I trusted and from which I knew honest opinions would come.
I am not exaggerating at all when I say that I do miss you. It was nice to have been a nuisance to you while you were here. I don't apologize for it at all.
I am afraid I didn't adequately thank you for your photograph. You know that I am grateful to you for it, and that it is as impossible for me adequately to express my feelings that are bound up with it, as it was for you to express yours.
Ever yours,
L. W. Douglas
P.S. I am sure it isn't necessary to point out that Tick is not an emissary. He is merely the one-in addition to Julius-with whom I have discussed the matter, and he will, by chance, be in Washington by the time you arrive. Perhaps I can best punctuate this idea that he is not an emissary by saying that I would much, much prefer not doing the job!!
The Honorable The Secretary of State, Washington 25, D.C.