102. Message From Foreign Secretary Lloyd to Secretary of State Herter0
Dear Chris: It was very good of you to send me your impressions of Dr. Adenauer’s visit, which I read with the greatest interest.1 I am most grateful.
Harold Caccia has also told me of his talk with you.2 The visit cannot have been easy to handle and it was disappointing to hear that Dr. Adenauer seemed to be still so full of suspicions.
I agree about the several objections which you mention to Dr. Adenauer’s proposal for a plebiscite in West Berlin, the worst being certainly that it would have the effect of restricting our freedom of manoeuver. In addition it seems to me that the Russians might conceivably retaliate against a Western plebiscite by holding a rigged plebiscite in East Germany which would be used to justify the incorporation of East Berlin into the D.D.R. But our impression is that German official thinking is also unenthusiastic about the plebiscite idea. Certainly Dr. Carstens, who passed through London on March 21, made no secret of his dislike of it. He said that he had been entrusted by Adenauer with the task of formulating the question to be put to the West Berliners but had found it beyond his wits. It may be therefore that the Germans will not wish to pursue the matter very vigorously in the Four Power Working Group on Germany and Berlin.
As regards the possibility of a zone of inspection, I agree that the best way to proceed would be first to seek General Norstad’s comments from the military angle. I hope that you will be able to persuade the French to agree that General Norstad’s comments should be sought. But I suggest that our national military authorities need not be consulted until the Governments have received these comments. If and when we get a military appreciation from General Norstad I agree that the Four Power Working Group on Germany and Berlin would then be the best forum in which to begin discussing the political aspects. There is obviously still a lot of work to be done on this and I imagine that we may not be in a position to consider any concrete project at our meeting in April. [Page 255] In view of the importance of avoiding any leak to the effect that an idea of this kind is even being considered, perhaps this would not matter.
With warm regards,
Yours ever,
- Source: Department of State, Presidential Correspondence: Lot 66 D 204. Secret. Attached to a note from Caccia to Herter, dated March 24, which stated that Caccia had been asked to pass it on to the Secretary of State.↩
- Transmitted in Document 99.↩
- Presumably Herter had briefed Caccia on the talks with Adenauer on March 20, when he gave him a copy of the letter to Lloyd (see source note above), but no record of this meeting has been found.↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩