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711.62/185
Memorandum by the
Secretary of State Regarding a Conversation With the German Ambassador
(Dieckhoff )
[WASHINGTON,] January 14, 1938.
The German Ambassador came in upon his own
request. He was very prompt to say that he came on his own initiative, and
without instructions, to speak very earnestly about the utterances the night
before of former Ambassador William E. Dodd, in which among other things he
accused Chancellor Hitler of killing as many people in Germany as were killed
by Charles II. The Ambassador then launched into a very strong statement about
the injury to the relations between our two governments which such an utterance
would inevitably cause. The fact, he said, that Dodd had been recognized until
recently as Ambassador at Berlin and of his returning here and at once engaging
in such serious attacks upon Chancellor Hitler was wholly unjustifiable from
every standpoint and would be given more weight by reason of his recently
having been ambassador; that, there fore, he felt this Government should say
that it disapproved what Dr. Dodd had said. These are the principal points he
made. It is possible that I proceeded to talk before he had reached a stage of
asking for apologies and regrets, although I cannot say whether this was in his
mind. I proceeded to say that, of course, regardless of what might be thought
of various forms of government, including this government, we do have under our
Constitution and Bill of Rights freedom of speech, from the results of which
there is no recourse except under the law of libel and slander, which includes
criminal liability; that we who are engaged in the public service in this
country are subjected to what we often consider the most outrageous criticisms
and insults; that of course the Ambassador knows Dr. Dodd and is acquainted
with his ideas and his disposition to give expression to them wherever he goes;
that I have very little personal or official influence with Dr. Dodd so far as
I was aware, although this latter phase was neither here nor there and was not
intended to be a governing or material phase of what I was saying. I then
stated that Dr. Dodd, having recently resigned as Ambassador and now being a
private citizen, does not in his utterances represent the views of this
Government. I then inquired of the Ambassador as to how many men Charles II
killed. The Ambassador replied that he did not recall. In fact, neither of us
did at the moment. We were not certain that Charles II was especially notorious
in this regard.
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DOCUMENTS
The Ambassador brought up some phase of the
controversy between dictatorships and democracies and indicated his
displeasure: at the way this debate was being carried on. I said to him that
naturally and inevitably the one supreme issue or question is whether the
principles which underlie the structure of international law and order shall be
preserved or whether the doctrine of force and militarism and aggression and
the destruction of all international law and order should prevail; that in
support of the first proposal each of the sixty-five nations alike can, with
perfect consistency, join in, no matter what their form of government might
happen to be. I said this program contemplates that the road to permanent peace
is based upon these principles which in turn rest upon the solid foundation of
economic restoration.
C [ORDELL] H[ULL]