Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Berlin Crisis, 1958–1959, Volume VIII

437. Telegram From the Delegation to the Foreign Ministers Meeting to the Department of State⁰

Geneva, July 14, 1959, midnight.

Secto 311. Western Foreign Ministers met this morning and again this afternoon. They agreed:

1. Not to pursue Gromyko regarding private meeting but to have plenary sessions tomorrow and Thursday. Couve, who is having Gromyko to lunch on Friday, offered to convert luncheon into private session if developments should make this desirable.

2. Couve to make principal speech at tomorrow’s plenary session directed at questioning Gromyko on Soviet all-German committee proposal, analysis of Gromyko’s July 13 speech¹ and emphasis on Western Peace Plan.

3. Coordinating group will meet tomorrow morning. Large part of discussion turned around Couve’s concern that if West discussed Berlin question and all-German committee proposal together as Gromyko wished, we should be negotiating both issues under Berlin threat and run risk of having to make concessions on both counts. In his view Russians should be told that West prepared discuss both questions, but not together, and that if Berlin question resolved then discussion of all-German committee could be taken up. He thought that if West wanted to go to summit meeting having removed Berlin threat then it must accept time limit on interim Berlin arrangement. There was, however, no reason and it would be highly dangerous to accept concurrent time limit in respect to broader German questions which would then be broughtas well under Berlin threat. This would provide Russians with convenient lever with which to interfere in Western Germany. Although Ministers reached no definitive decision on this question of tactics which will be dealt with further, discussion revealed large measure of agreement with Couve’s analysis.

At outset of meeting at Lloyd’s suggestion British Ambassador Reilly reported on his talk in Moscow with Kuznetsov, which was described in today’s NYT. He said that although Kuznetsov’s remarks had not seemed to him to contain anything new, he had filled in his French and German colleagues and would have informed Thompson, if time had permitted.

Brentano was visibly upset at leaks in French press of German working paper and report that full text would appear in tomorrow’s NYT.² He had been queried by Adenauer in this connection. He requested his colleagues to return the copies that had been provided him so he could assert the paper did not exist and made impassioned plea for greater security saying he was conducting investigation in his own delegation.

Herter

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 396.1–GE/7–1459. Secret; Limit Distribution.
1. See footnote 3, Document 435.
2. See footnote 1, Document 433.