66. Letter From the Secretary of State to Chancellor Adenauer1
My Dear Chancellor Adenauer: I was delighted to receive through the personal good offices of Foreign Minister von Brentano your letter of November 19.2 It was very good of you to spare him, and good of him to come, as that we could have this personal talk. Yesterday we met for several hours, and as I dictate this I am expecting him again in a few minutes for a further and final exchange of views before he takes his plane.
We have, I think, found ourselves in quite general agreement. He will report to you in detail. With respect to the specific points of your letter, I would say:
- (1)
- We shall sympathetically consider the interesting suggestion that the Heads of Government with the initiative of the President of the United States should express the view that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has come to reflect more than military alliance and now constitutes an expression of Atlantic political community and as much should be considered to have an indefinite duration.
- (2)
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We agree to the principle of mutual consultation through the Permanent Council, and perhaps otherwise, and have sought to develop this particularly during the past year. Of course as I explained at our recent NATO meetings and also now to Dr. von Brentano, we must not create an obligation of consultation so rigid that it precludes the possibility of a quick reply to Soviet initiatives. If there should be a probing operation either in Europe, the Middle East or Asia, e.g., Berlin, the only response that is effective is one that is almost instantaneous. A probing operation which is allowed to gather headway quickly becomes more than a probe, it becomes an attack, and that evolution we must be prepared to prevent. If our general policies are understood and agreed upon in advance, there must be sufficient trust and confidence to permit quick applications; otherwise we shall be totally incapable of matching the thrusts of a versatile operator like Mr. Khrushchev, and the danger of general war increases.
We quite share your views that the Permanent Representatives to the NATO Council should have adequate authority and comprehensive instructions. We have, ourselves, been moving steadily in [Page 211] this direction, as I think the recent record shows. Of course, we have not yet achieved all that could be desired.
- (3)
- We are ready to explore closer military cooperation along the lines of your letter.
- (4)
- We also are ready to seek increased community effort in the field of scientific research and technology.
- (5)
- And we consider of the utmost importance that our meeting in Paris should be given more than a military character. It should, I think, be made clear that NATO is a military organization only because Soviet aggressive policies make this necessary to secure the independence and integrity of the area. However, we stand by the London proposals on disarmament and want nothing more than a peace which will relieve us from the burdens of armament and the Sino-Soviet threats which have been constant over the past decade and more. We should perhaps urge that the Soviet Union show its respect for agreements by carrying out the Summit agreement with respect to the reunification of Germany. The record of the Soviet Union in breaking agreements is such that only if confidence in agreements is established by Soviet deeds can peaceful coexistence of the Soviet orbit and the free world be made a dependable and organized state of affairs.
The President and I look forward eagerly to seeing you at Paris. The personal trust and confidence which prevails between us is, I feel, one of the greatest assets of the free world today.
With very best wishes, I am
Faithfully yours,
- Source: Department of State, Presidential Correspondence: Lot 66 D 204, Dulles/Herter with German Officials 1953–1959. Personal and Confidential. A notation on the source text indicates that Dulles gave the letter to von Brentano at the airport on November 24 for delivery to Adenauer.↩
- Document 62.↩