Office of the Historian

78. Telegram From the Embassy in Germany to the Department of State1

Bonn, November 10, 1956—3 p.m.

1826. In conversation with Foreign Minister Von Brentano last night he stated that in his opinion a treaty on EURATOM might be signed by Christmas and the 6 nations involved would then be in a position to ask the United States for the favorable arrangements about which we had spoken in the past. This prophecy was by no means a certainty, however, the connection between EURATOM and the Common Market might not be as firm as hitherto envisaged.

As to the present international situation the Foreign Minister was pessimistic and rather alarmed. There was powder lying around in many spots and sparks flying which could start a blaze anywhere. He believed the Russian note to British and French2 was a real threat and not a propaganda trick though he admitted it was possible that the Soviets were gambling on British and French decision to cease fire and wished to get credit for forcing this decision. Foreign Minister believes struggle for power is in process in Kremlin and if one man emerges victor he will be inclined to take dangerous steps in foreign policy, in part to offset obvious difficulties in satellites.

Discussing the impact of the grave situation on Germany, the Foreign Minister emphasized that the population was very disturbed and to some degree alarmed. He agreed the fact that the Soviets were now threatening would assist the passage of legislation necessary for rearmament. But said no acceleration of tempo beyond that stated by Strauss was possible without concurrence of opposition (SPD). This was unlikely. Also any attempt to emphasize to the population dangers of present situation might well cause a panic. There were signs of such an incipient panic already. The government must be careful, otherwise a wave of buying might start, food stocks be affected and even a panicky evacuation of cities might begin. Therefore, though the new developments might to some degree accelerate buildup, there [Page 172] could be no talk of an emergency requiring drastic reappraisal rearmament plans.

Conant
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 762A.00/11–1065. Secret; Priority. Repeated to Paris and London.↩
  2. For text of the Soviet note, dated November 4, see Documents (R.I.I.A.) for 1956, pp. 280–281.↩