HE CHANGED FRANCE'S MIND

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000100070057-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 14, 1998
• Sequence Number: 57
• Publication Date: May 15, 1955
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

WrYRGHT
THIS WEEK Magazine MAY 1 b
Approved For Release 2000$724
HE CHANGED
FRANCE'S MIND
Frenchmen were apprehensive when a young
banker, Douglas Dillon, was appointed U. S.
Ambassador. But tact, skill and the Dillon
vineyard all helped melt the French doubts
by Barrett McGurn
CPYRGHT
PARIS
V O N MAY 5, France officially completed
her part in approval of the Paris agree-
ments by filing the documents of ratification.
Thus, West Germany was at last enabled to
enter the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-
tion as a sovereign -- and armed -- nation.,
During the two years leading up to the
vote Allied unity had been in jeopardy
many times. France see-sawed between its
desire to stay tied to its traditional Atlantic
allies and its dread of German militarism.
ROBERT COHEN
DAUGHTER'S WEDDING: Ceremony
brought flowers from Mendes-France
THE AMBASSADOR: Dillon keeps France informed on U.S. policies - in good French
Many Frenchmen flirted with the idea that
peace could still be built on a Franco-Soviet
pact.
The credit for France's choice goes to
many men and their votes, but not a little
of the honor belongs to a patient, skilled
American diplomatic team in Paris and
to the young ambassador who leads it,
C. Douglas Dillon.
For months Dillon and his aides labored
behind the scenes to calm French fears of
American "aggressiveness" on the one hand
and to post Washington on the reasons for
French hesitancy on the other.
It is no secret that many French were
dismayed when President Eisenhower in
1953 nominated 43-year-old Doug Dillon
new chief of our French mission, the impor-
tant post held by men like Franklin and
Jefferson. Like Winthrop Aldrich, who was
sent to Britain, Dillon was a Wall Street
banker and, in addition, young. He was a
relative unknown outside financial and
Republican political circles and apparently
the very personification of what Frenchmen
doubted in the new administration.
As if these handicaps weren't enough,
an interlude of bad health sent Dillon back
to America for treatment in his first year.
In all, he was away from his Paris desk
four months in 1954, three months this
year. Despite it all, Dillon is no longer a
bete noire but a success.
Wise reliance on a good team, including
career diplomat Ted Achilles, one of the
planners of the Atlantic alliance, has been
part of it. Individual qualities have helped,
too. Still another factor has been a series
of happy accidents of personal history.
One of these accidents is now part of dip-
lomatic folklore. In a nation where every
seventh man grows wine, Dillon soon be-
came known as a member of the family that
owns one of the very finest French vineyards,
the Chateau-Haut-Brion of Bordeaux.
Chateau- Haut- Brion is undoubtedly the
wine Samuel Pepys spoke of in his diary
three centuries ago when he mentioned a
fine new wine at the Royall Oak tavern in
London. It was, said Pepys, "a sort of
French wine called Ho Bryan," with "a
good and most particular taste that I never
met with before."
"You Must Be a Friend"
THE taste is still "good and most particu-
lar," especially the vi tage of 1934. Paris
political figures wh lave received Christ-
mas cases of it fro oug Dillon can testify
to that. So ca uch Americans as Allen
Dulles, head the ptrg]. Intelligence
_Cg Agent o -generally refuses wine, but
e an exception for Haut-Brion 1934.
Dillon's father Clarence, a spectacular
stock operator of the 1920's, bought the
Chateau- Haut-Brion property from its aged
and childless French owner in 1935, after
two years of negotiations.
"You are a wine grower, wine is France,
so. you must be a friend of ours," many
Frenchmen have told the American ambas-
sador. The wine alone did not guarantee
Dillon success but it is clear that it was
certainly no hindrance.
Another accident in Dillon's background
is that his first cousin is Seymour Weller,
possibly the only native of the United States
ever to become mayor of a French village.
Weller, a childhood friend of the ambas-
sador, passed so much ,of his childhood
and middle years in France that he became
a naturalized Frenchman in 1939. He still
speaks French with the faintest of Ameri-
can accents, but his conduct during the
German occupation was so outstanding
that his fellow villagers chose him their
mayor.
Weller's village is Neaufles-St. Martin, a
town of 700, 50 miles northwest of Paris.
Through his visits to Neaufies and espe-
cially through Weller, Dillon has had a
glimpse of .French character which embassy-
bound diplomats in Paris might easily miss
altogether.
No one is more convinced of the value of
Neaufles-St. Martin as a weather vane of
the French mentality than Weller himself.
Parisians are not France, Weller insists.
Parisians are city folk, but France has so
few other large cities that it is safe to say
more than 80 per cent of all Frenchmen
Continued on next page
Approved For Release 2000/08/24: CIA-RDP70-00058R000100070057-1 0 11
 Approved For Release 2000/08/24: CIA-RDP70-00058R000100070057-1
GPYRGHT HE CHANGED FRANCE'S MIND
Continued from preceding page
CREAM: Celebration Cream, Double Century
MEDIUM: Amontillado Primero, Ideal Pale
DRY: V.V.D., La Ina, Guitar
says Guy Lombardo
famous Orchestra Leader
who owns an East Coast pool.
wao.urc n.rrcws `~'
Works Wonders with Foods
You can have your ownTI8' x 36' swimming pool, in
any of 6 attractive shapes, for less than the price of the
family car! Constructed of reinforced concrete,
the pool comes complete with all fittings, piping and
concrete steps-is designed to last a lifetime.
Bank'rF'1 '
Completely Installed from $2500
Pool at Guy Lornbardo's Freeport, N.Y. residence.
erms. i hatton and accessories at slight
extra cost. Call your East Coast representative
for information or appointment.
He can make your home a perennial vacationlandl
Write or Phone for Illustrated Booklet.
VAlley Stream 5-9060 ? FReeport 97280
5
12
4W ad"Ic
Dept. 1- 15155, 108 S. Franklin Avenue, Valley Stream, N.Y.
A mild smooth
cheese of rare
high flavor
go
For flavor superb, season to
taste your favorite w bite
with A
sauce or gravy ug
the famous cocktail iagred~ent'
are essentially country villagers.
Crops, the family, thrift and
getting early to bed are the dom-
inant concerns in Neaufles. Dep-
uties to the parliament, like
mayors for the village, are elected
on face value. All this Dillon
has been able to observe.
Another of Dillon's happy
circumstances was his parents'
warm affection for France, a
liking they transmitted to their
son. Dillon was born in Geneva,
but for most of his life his par-
ents have maintained a Paris
apartment on the Left Bank.
As a youth, the ambassador-
to-be toured Normandy on a
bicycle, polished the French he
learned from a governess, stud-
ied art and in general got to know
the country he considers a sec-
ond. home.
As ambassador, Dillon has
not been content with his ade-
quate command of the French
tongue. He was dissatisfied with
his control of tricky French
verbs, so for months he devoted
the first hour of each day to
being tutored. He uses no inter-
preter in his talks with premiers,
past and present, or the scores
other top officials he knows. Most
of his speeches are in French.
On the Exchange
DILLON'S parents chose Groton
School for their son's prepara-
tory years. He was graduated
with high honors. At Harvard
e majored in American history.
He learned Wall Street finance
in the years before World War I I
occupying a Stock Exchange
eat bought for him at a reported
185,000).
During the war he was grad-
ated first in his class for Naval
Reserve officers. Since the war
e has been an emerging figure
n Republican politics and social
nd welfare activities. He was
ne of the early Eisenhower
oosters in New Jersey. '
At the time of his ambassa-
cAtJr
DC
"Heavens, don't you ever press your uniform?"
dorial appointment Dillo,,,,;as
chairman of the board of Dillon,
Read & Company. He resigned
to take his present diplomatic
post.
Aides on Dillon's embassy
staff were impressed during his
first weeks with the swift way he
was able to "get the flavor" of
complicated French-American
problems. As assistants bring
him the file of cablegrams from
and to the State Department,
The gets the essentials almost by
flipping through the cables," one
of them told me.
Feverish Schedule
THE ability to think and act
quickly has enabled the ambas-
sador to crowd together a fever-
ishly active schedule while pre-
serving a never-ruffled calm.
Scores of travelers each week
decide that a chat with the Amer-
ican ambassador is one of the
experiences they want. But there
are only so many hours even in
an ambassador's day.
A dozen or so callers, includ-
ing big names of French pr -s,
manage to see the ambas,.a'or
on a typical day (10 a.m. to
6 p.m., five days a week), but
other callers, who seem to think
he has nothing to do but "shake
hands with duchesses all day,"
as one aide expressed it, are
steered to staff members.
Dillon has certainly needed
every bit of the background and
quality he has brought to his
post. French-American relations
hit a low point last August when
the French killed the European
Defense Community plan.
The French ratification of
West German sovereignty and
rearmament removed the great-
est threat to Franco-American
unity. But French weariness with
the cold war and eagerness to
divert less of the nation's wealth
to armaments remain realities.
Dillon's task in Paris will con-
tinue a delicate one. The End
12 ? Approved For Release 2000/08/24: CIA-RDP70-00058R000100070057-1
This [reek Mopnabee---:N y 15, 1955