740.00119 Control (Germany)/5–1545
The United States Political Adviser for Germany (Murphy) to the Ambassador in France (Caffery)
Dear Jeff: Before your excellent dinner last evening Gaston Palewski70 opened up on the subject of the French zone of occupation in Germany. He said first of all that the French want Cologne and the Rhine province west of the Rhine up to the Cologne line. I said of course that was a matter between them and the British, to which he replied that we ought to help them with the British. I let that pass and then he said they must have all of the state of Baden. I asked him why and he said because it formed part of a “political ensemble”. I said that as I saw it the American suggestion regarding the southern half of the state of Baden and a large chunk of Württemberg and Bezirk of Lindau made a very interesting political ensemble if considered in the light of what I understood the British were willing to concede out of their zone west of the Rhine. Palewski said the French were not much interested in Württemberg, but that Baden represents politically great interest for them.
Palewski went on to develop this theme and said rather grandly that the French would of course be willing to make a “concession” to us, allowing the use of Karlsruhe and Mannheim. I suggested very tactfully that he shouldn’t look at it in that light, because the whole matter consisted of a concession on our part of part of a zone won by the hard fighting of American troops as part of the huge war effort of the United States. I suggested that the French go along with us on our proposal now, on the theory that nothing is permanent in this life and that if later on our military found that logistically Karlsruhe and Mannheim were not necessary the matter would always be subject to review. I emphasized that our interest in Karlsruhe and Mannheim was logistic rather than political.
Yours ever,
- Director of the Cabinet of General de Gaulle.↩