In May 1953 Jean Monnet and the Vice-President of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), Franz Etzel began meeting key American industrialists on the benefits of the ECSC as part of their mission for an American loan. Clarence Randall, Chairman of the Board of the Inland Steel Corporation was one of the people they met. Randall had previously written a series of articles criticising the ECSC, because he felt it was a giant cartel, which also encouraged socialism because of centralised control of funds. However, Randall had come to recognise the initiative for its merits. Randall was later made Chairman of the Council of Foreign Economic Policy (CFEP), which established a Commission under his Chairmanship, which came to be known as the Randall Commission, to examine the international relationships of the US in the economic sphere. Monnet testified at a hearing of the Commission. Later in 1956, when official opinion in the US was undecided with regard to the Free Trade Area and the Common Market, Randall advised the US policy makers to endorse the Common Market.

The originals are held in various Archives and Presidential Libraries in the USA