204. Memorandum From the Secretary of State’s Special Assistant (Greene) to Acting Secretary of State Herter0
I passed on to the Secretary this morning what you had told me about the meeting with the President on Berlin yesterday1 and the questions identified at that meeting for further study.
The Secretary commented that the basic philosophy of our current program is that if we show that we are prepared to use whatever force may be required to assure our rights in respect to Berlin, and if the Soviets are in doubt of this, then we will not in the event have to use that force.
The Secretary also commented that if our Allies shrink from putting this philosophy into practice with us, then there is serious question of the value of NATO.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 762A.0221/3–659. Secret.↩
- See Document 201.↩