740.00119 Council/7–749: Telegram
The United States High Commissioner for Germany (McCloy) to the Secretary of State
1073. RefDeptel 757 July 5.1 My press tel 1060 July 52 reports Politburo statement. Text has been translated and is being forwarded by pouch.
Following is translation that part of statement to which Middleton referred:
“The Politburo welcomes the agreement for the next CFM meeting and the acknowledgment of the principle restoring Germany’s political [Page 522] and economic unity. But the Politburo points out that execution of measures toward formation of a separate West German state and elections for the Bundestag are contradictory to the Paris CFM agreement.
If the Western Powers do not want to act in contravention of their agreement, they will have to revoke immediately all measures taken toward formation of a West-German state, because, according to the Potsdam Agreement, decisions on Germany rest not in the hands of the three Western Allies, but with the CFM. Only a settlement pursuant to the Soviet Union’s proposals for speedy elaboration of a peace treaty and withdrawal from Germany corresponds to the vital interests of the German people. The Politburo is convinced that such a settlement will prevail in the end, just as reason prevailed in the agreement on the Austrian question.”
This line has been expressed before in less positive terms. We think statement is of tactical nature designed to build up future case that West violated CFM agreements in much the same manner as Soviets previously attempted to construct argument that West violated Potsdam in order to provide debating points to justify their own actions.
If Sovs desire to jettison CFM and New York Agreements3 at any time in future, this point will of course be a convenient peg on which to hang the argument for such action. But we do not believe this statement indicates that the establishment of a West German State per se would lead Sovs to nullify these agreements. We believe that the “reason will prevail in the end” theme in the last sentence of the quotation supports this interpretation.
- Not printed; it requested a report and estimate on a story by Drew Middleton in the New York Times, July 3, which stated that the Politburo of the SED demanded abandonment of the establishment of the West German Government, for otherwise the Western powers would be violating agreements of the Council of Foreign Ministers. (862.00/7–549)↩
- Not printed. For the full text of the Politburo statement, see Dokumente der SED, pp. 257–261.↩
- For the text of the Paris communiqué, see p. 1062. For the text of the New York agreements, see editorial note, p. 750.↩