Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, European Security and the German Question, Volume III, Part 2

762A.00/10–451: Telegram

The United States High Commissioner for Germany (McCloy) to the Secretary of State ¹

secret

Bonn, October 4, 1951—noon.

214. Chancellor opened Wed mtg² with HICOMs by pointing out that he was expected to make important speech in Berlin on Sat³ and cld not avoid mentioning Grotewohl proposals. For this reason it wld be important for him to know whether Allies agreed with Bundestag resolution.⁴ He expects Volkskammer to reply to Bundestag Sat or Sun.

Kirkpatrick said that each of HICOMs wld have to speak for his own govt as no joint position had been adopted. He then reviewed position adopted by FonMins in Paris in 1949,⁵ stating that any project resulting in neutralization of Ger wld be damaging as well as impossible of fulfillment and that if a unified Ger were created, it must be free to associate itself with other nations or groups of nations animated by desire of maintaining peace. He also said that any return to Control Council with veto procedure must be excluded.

I agreed with Kirkpatrick, adding that we felt resolution was a constructive step toward unification of Ger. Furthermore, it wld be important to continue to stress that integration of Europe was only satisfactory basis for progress and for peace and that such integration was completely consistent with unification of Ger. Berard agreed with foregoing but added a note of caution that a direct intervention on part of Allies in this present situation wld in his opinion make Chancellor’s position more difficult.

Kirkpatrick then said that in 1949 one of the conditions which had been laid down by Ministers for unification of Ger was dissolution of Volkspolizei. He asked if omission of this condition by Bundestag was significant. Chancellor replied it had no significance whatsoever. Included in the fourteen points was proposal that UN Commission shld insure that conditions in East Zone were such as to make free elections possible. This was a most important condition which cld take care of all of the requirements not specified.

McCloy

1. Repeated to Frankfurt.
2. October 3.
3. For extracts from Adenauer’s speech at Berlin on October 6 dealing with the Question of German unity, see Documents on German Unity, vol. i, pp. 214–216 and Efforts Made to Re-establish the Unity of Germany, pp. 46–50.
4. Ibid., pp. 41–44.
5. For documentation on the sixth session of the Council of Foreign Ministers, held at Paris May 23–June 20, 1949, see Foreign Relations, 1949, vol. iii, pp. 856 ff.