14. Diary Entry by the Ambassador to Germany (Bruce)0
[Here follows a paragraph on an unrelated subject.]
General Hodes arrived at lunch time, preceded by General Hamlett, Martin Hillenbrand and others interested in the Berlin access affair. I had a long talk alone with Hodes regarding the future course of negotiations on military convoy and individual truck movements, but could not reconcile in all particulars our differing points of view. Later we adjourned to the conference room to have a general discussion. I sympathize with Hank’s desire to yield nothing to the Soviets but do not think it is probable they will accept looser documentation than we have been in the habit of giving them. He believes perhaps they will. At any rate, if they refuse he is in favor of stalling the talks as long as possible and his view of “possible” is a period of many months. The British and French would never accept such a postponement if it were to interfere, as it probably would, with their present traffic. We finally decided to let the political advisers in Berlin take one more crack at this problem and insist upon the so-called simple document as presented by General Hodes to General Zakharov.1
- Source: Department of State, Bruce Diaries: Lot 64 D 327. Secret.↩
- The Political Advisers met again with Markushin on July 18. In addition to arriving at no final agreement on documentation, the Soviet Deputy Commandant stated that, beginning August 1, Soviet officials would begin to inspect the vehicles in Western convoys.↩