662.001/9–1052: Telegram

No. 135
The Secretary of State to the Embassy in the United Kingdom1

secret
niact
priority

1718. Fol is text of Dept’s redraft of note on Ger, as explained in preceding tel:2

  • “1. The US Govt has carefully considered the Sov Govt’s note of Aug 23 about Ger.3 It had hoped that the note wld have marked some progress towards agreement on the essential question of free all-Ger elections. This is the first question which must be settled among the four powers so that Ger can be unified, an all-Ger Govt formed and a peace treaty concluded.
  • “2. Possibly in order to divert attention from this issue, the greater part of the Sov note of Aug 23 is, however, devoted to wholly unfounded attacks upon the Atlantic Pact, the Eur Defense Community and the Conventions signed at Bonn on May 27 [26]. These arbitrary and unilateral assertions of the Sov Govt are naturally unacceptable as a basis of four-power discussions about Ger.
  • “3. The US Govt must insist on the necessity of starting such four-power discussions at the only point from which they can logically start, which is the organization of free elections. In its note of July 10,4 the US Govt called attention to the obvious fact that this is the first point which must be settled if any progress is to be made towards sealing the breach now steadily being widened between the Sov Zone of Ger and the greater part of the country which is under the jurisdiction of the FedRep. In its latest note as in its first note,5 the Sovt Govt, on the other hand, continues to relegate to the background the problem of elections, including the simple and practical question of agreeing on a Com to see whether free elections can actually be held in all of Ger. Until this is done and suitable conditions exist, elections cannot be held. Until elections are held, no all-Ger Govt can be formed, nor can the country be unified. And until an all-Ger Govt is formed and given a suitable status of freedom, it is useless to discuss the terms of a Ger peace treaty.
  • “4. The US Govt is compelled to remind the Sov Govt that conditions have altered radically since the four powers agreed at Potsdam in 1945 on certain political and economic principles to govern the initial control period. The idea of a peace treaty drafted by the four powers and imposed by dictate upon Ger is entirely unsuitable in 1952. Until free elections are held which include the Sov Zone, there will be no Ger authority properly qualified to speak for the population of the Sov Zone on such matters as a peace treaty. The Sov Govt has suggested that East Ger representatives as well as representatives of the Ger FedRep shld take part in the four-power mtg ‘for the examinations of appropriate questions’. The US Govt must at once state that such a proposal is not a substitute for the participation of an all-Ger Govt in the discussions.
  • “5. The US Govt insists that genuinely free elections with view to the formation of an all-Ger Govt must come first. Over the past seven years there has been agreement between the three Western Govts and the Sov Govt that a united Ger shld be ‘peaceloving, democratic and independent’. The US Govt has learned by hard experience in recent years that these terms have one meaning in common parlance and another in the official Sov vocabulary. Sov official pronouncements appear to reserve the word ‘democratic’ exclusively for those societies in which the Communists have a monopoly of political power. Similarly, the term ‘peaceloving’ is applied only to Soviet Communist policies and those who fol them, while anything which implies resistance to such policies is labelled as warlike and aggressive. The words ‘free’ and ‘independent’ are used to describe states with the outward trappings of sovereignty but actually in a condition of subjection to the Sov Union. The different interpretation of these terms is illustrated by the contrasting results of their application in Eastern and Western Ger. In the Sov Zone, and indeed in the neighboring ‘popular democracies’ of Eastern Eur, ‘freedom’ means forced labor, deportation, arbitrary imprisonment without trial, and all the other manifestations of the police state. In these territories ‘free elections’ have hitherto meant ‘freedom’ for the electorate to cast 98 percent or 99 percent vote in favor of an official single list. The contrast between these concepts and those which obtain in Western Ger is perfectly clear. It is for the Ger people to choose between these alternative ways of life. But they must be able to make their choice in genuine freedom and full responsibility. Only genuinely free elections can reflect the will of the Ger people and permit the formation of an all-Ger Govt with the necessary freedom of action to discuss and to accept a peace settlement.
  • “6. Under all these circumstances, the US Govt cannot feel that any progress has been made in the six notes which have previously [Page 321] been exchanged. It is anxious, however, to avail itself of any opportunity, however slight, to find a way of ending the division of Ger, now so arbitrarily maintained. This division exists as a festering sore in Eur. It will not be healed by discussions about a hypothetical peace treaty with a country yet lacking all semblance of a unified Govt. It will only be healed by energetically tackling the problem of unifying the country through free elections.
  • “7. The US Govt therefore renews the proposal made in its note of July 10 for a four-power mtg—which could take place in Oct—to discuss the formation and functions of an impartial Comm of investigation as an aid to the creation of the conditions necessary for free elections. The next step wld be to discuss the arrangements for the holding of these elections and for the formation of an all-Ger Govt, as proposed in para 11(4) of the US Govt’s note of May 13.6 When free elections have been held and a govt formed, the peace settlement can be negotiated. The US Govt most earnestly urges the Sov Govt to reconsider its refusal to join the other powers in a single-minded effort thus to come to grips with the problem of holding free elections in Ger.”

Acheson
  1. Drafted by Laukhuff; cleared with Jessup, Riddleberger, Perkins, and Barbour; and initialed by Secretary Acheson. Repeated to Paris, Moscow, Bonn, and Berlin.
  2. Telegram 1717, supra.
  3. Document 125.
  4. Document 124.
  5. Document 65.
  6. Document 101.