762.00/9–2751: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Office of the United States High Commissioner for Germany, at Frankfurt1
priority
2084. Eyes only for McCloy and Reber from Byroade. Pls give fol msg no distribution in order to ensure that its contents do no leak.
After reviewing situation created by Grotewohl proposals of Sept 15, we feel we have no alternative except to take some public position on Ger unification. Neither silence nor “standing on the record” will suffice because too many people have forgotten what record is.
Consider it excluded that we ourselves take any initiative to propose talks either by Gers or by four occupying powers and must seek by every means our power to prevent such talks occurring at this time. Consider that talks wld inevitably prevent Gers from concluding either contractual or defense arrangements and that not only our Ger policy but our defense plans and entire policy of Eur integration wld suffer severe setback.
In these circumstances believe we must hammer hard at three points. First, we must make clear our support for ultimate Ger unification and our record of such support. Second, we must make clear that Ger Commies and Sovs have been obstructing force because unwilling to consider unification except on terms which wld endanger West Gers freedom. Third and most important, Ger unity can only be sought through Eur integration and consequent snowballing of strength. Believe we must bend every effort to arouse enthusiasm for Eur idea as only way to gain strength and thus assure eventual Ger unification under conditions of freedom. We realize our task more difficult than that of Commies because our idea more involved. Believe, however, we have no choice but to make maximum effort along foregoing lines.
Bur of Ger Affairs has accordingly drafted statement which cld be made by Acting Sec for Dept. Statement reads as follows:
“There are several things I wish to say about the reunification of the Sov Zone of Ger with the main part of the country.
First, we want to bring about the unification of Ger and we will vigorously pursue any plan genuinely calculated to achieve it. We will not accept a plan calculated to turn Ger into a no-man’s land, make a football of the liberties of the Ger people and prevent the creation of a free and united Europe. On at least thirteen separate occasions since Feb 1950, the highest US, Fr, Brit or Ger Fed authorities have proposed or endorsed the holding of free gen elections throughout Ger. The record is crystal clear and it is impressive. We have sought by the most specific and detailed proposals to advance the freedom frontier from the Elbe to the Oder, as a first step in the peaceful reunion of Eastern Europe with Western Europe.
[Page 1790]The second thing I wish to say is that if there is not Ger unity today in the face of these exertions by us, it is because Ger Commies and Sov imperialists have combined to prevent it. They wish their own brand of ‘unity’, yes, but it is the unity of the concentration camp, of the chain gang, of the police state. Gen Chuikov, Commissioner of the Sov Zone, has failed to this day to reply to the proposals made to him for all-Ger elections. The East Ger Commies have rejected every single proposal for elections under free conditions and have countered with generalities and fuzzy variations designed to bring West Ger into the Eastern slave camp rather than to permit East Gers to express their undoubted longing for reunification with their free fellow-countrymen. The Ger Commies want two things/Ultimately, they want to extend their iron control over all of Ger. Immediately, they want to entrap the free world into endless talk about Ger unification in order to arouse false hopes in men’s minds and thus hinder the consolidation of strength in the West. We have seen many examples of Commie ability to conduct a talk-fest, most recently at the Paris Deputies Conference last Spring and at Kaesong. With these experiences in mind, we do not believe the free Ger people will knowingly suffer themselves to be caught on that fly-paper.
The Ger Commies now talk of ‘free’ elections and of ‘democratic’ parties and suggest that a little friendly palaver will easily settle everything Unfortunately, we and the Ger people know by now what the Commies mean by ‘free’ elections and ‘democratic’ parties. In other words, no talks about elections will ever be profitable until the Ger Commies and their Russian masters substitute hard facts for soft words. We Wait for them to abolish their polit police, to guarantee normal personal and polit freedoms, to restore the independence of the judiciary, to permit democratic parties to operate freely, to renounce their unbridled econ looting, and to allow full and unfettered internatl supervision before, during and after elections. On the day Herr Grotewohl, under instructions from Gen Chuikov, takes specific measures to accomplish these things, a conference to prepare for elections can easily be arranged, and the way cleared for Ger polit and econ unity. We all know that we will wait in vain for Gen Chuikov to issue such instructions and for Herr Grotewohl to execute them because for them to do so wld mean that Eastern Ger wld be lost to communism. Nowhere in the world has communism been strong enough to tolerate true freedom.
What then is our policy, since every effort for Ger unity is rebuffed? A great movement is a-foot today in Europe, a movement which has been a dream for centuries, and which at last seems to be on the verge of realization. It is the drive for Eur consolidation and unity. Through the Council of Europe, the OEEC, the Schuman Plan for a Eur coal and steel community, and the Paris Conference for a Eur Defense Community, the urge of free Eurs for the creation of a prosperous, safe and united homeland is finding expression. Gers are joining Frenchmen in this drive. Itals are joining Scandinavians. The world has hardly begun to realize the revolutionary nature of what is happening. But we see enough to know that it must not fail. No double-talk, no blandishments, no threats, no dishonest proposals merely to ‘talk’ about Ger unity can be allowed to obscure or obstruct the great project [Page 1791] now under way. Realization of a united Europe will bring great strength to the free world. Without strength in the free world all efforts to unite with it those parts of countries and countries now pinned under the iron heel of Commie imperialism will fail.
Ger unity will come, but it must be Ger unity with Ger freedom. There can be no lasting Ger freedom without Eur unity and the strength that flows therefrom. Our policy and that of our Brit, Fr and other Eur partners is to build that unity with all speed and at the same time to fuse it with the strength of our Atlantic community. We are completely convinced that the Ger people also believe in the rightness of this course and will drive with us towards the common goal. On Thur the voice of free Ger spoke through Chancellor Adenauer and the elected representatives of the people in the Bundestag, to demand that freedom be guaranteed to Eastern Ger before elections can be held. We are convinced that the suppressed voice of Eastern Ger wld join in that demand if it cld.
The frustrated and frightened ones today are the masters of the Eastern slave world, who see a great idea of unity and freedom beginning to take form and triumph. They seek desperately to stop it by every kind of maneuver. They cannot stop it and we believe the day will come when the peoples of the East will rise up and join it.”
Foregoing statement not yet cleared but under discussion in Dept to be issued soonest if agreed. Urgently request your opinion as to its advisability.2 Wld release at same time list of 13 occasions on which Western support for unification has been expressed, as stated in text. Wld probably seek to have statement subsequently supported by Pres in brief comment. Wld also consider it advantageous for you to follow up within 24 or 48 hours with statement listing in more detail specific measures demanded in Eastern Ger, probably along lines of Adenauer’s Bundestag statement today.
Believe we have no choice but to support Gen line taken in Bundestag today, including support for specific proposal that UN supervise eventual elections. This seems consistent with our past record of demand for “internatl” supervision.
Do you think statement wld be strengthened by inserting after fourth line of fourth para something like following: “As Berlin’s Lord Mayor Reuter and Chancelor Adenauer have suggested, let them agree to immediate elections in Berlin as a touchstone of their sincerity”? [Byroade.]
- This telegram, drafted by Laukhuff, was repeated to Bonn.↩
- On October 4 Lewis transmitted to Secretary Acheson a memorandum summarizing recent developments in Germany, and stating that McCloy generally agreed “with both the content of the statement and the necessity for taking a position on this issue.” McCloy, however, expressed the belief that the United States “should for the moment let the initiative rest with the recent Bundestag action.” (762A.00/10–451)↩