Cablegram, Washington, 18 May 1949
440. RESTRICTED IMPORTANT
Your 284.[1] Secretary of State[2] at press conference today, made following statement regarding Pacific Pact. Begins.
While the conclusion of the North Atlantic Treaty does not mean any lessening of our interest in the security of other areas, as I have taken pains to make clear on several occasions, the United States is not currently considering participation in any further special collective defence arrangements other than the North Atlantic Treaty.
Recently there have been a number of public suggestions about a Pacific Pact modelled after the North Atlantic Treaty. It seems to me that some of those who make such suggestions may not have given study to the evolution of the North Atlantic Treaty, which was largely the product of a specific set of circumstances peculiar to Europe and the Atlantic Community - a logical culmination of a long series of developments. Practical plans for effective collaboration for defense were in progress among the principal countries of Western Europe long before steps were taken to extend such collaboration to provide for the security of the North Atlantic as an integrated whole. There thus existed a solid foundation on which to build.
While it is true that there are serious dangers to world peace existing in the situation in Asia, it is also true, as Prime Minister Nehru of India stated to the press the other day, that a Pacific defense pact could not take shape until present internal conflicts in Asia were resolved. He was quoted as going on to say that the time was not ripe for a pact corresponding to the North Atlantic Treaty, owing to these conflicts. Nehru’s view appears to be an objective appraisal of the actual, practical possibilities at the present time. Ends.
_1 Document 2.
2 Dean Acheson.
_
[NAA : A1838, 383/1/2/8, i]