Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume VII, Arms Control and Disarmament

310. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Germany⁰

Washington, July 3, 1963, 9:46 p.m.

39. The following letter from the President to Chancellor Adenauer should be delivered to the Chancellor’s office in the course of business Thursday but without giving an impression that it is being delivered with special haste in connection with the meeting between the Chancellor and de Gaulle.¹ Text of letter follows:

“Dear Mr. Chancellor:

On my return to Washington, I write to thank you once again—and most heartily—for all your kindness and courtesy during my visit to the Federal Republic.² I shall not soon forget the welcome which you and your people gave to us.

I particularly value the intimate private conversations which you and I were able to have, and I was grateful to you for your exposition of certain soundings which you have thought it useful to undertake. We on our side will also keep you fully informed. In that spirit, I have asked Mr. Rusk to give to Mr. Schroeder a complete account of our preliminary thinking about the possible meaning of the new language on nuclear tests which has appeared quite unexpectedly in Khrushchev’s Berlin speech.³

It is far from clear what the linkage may be between this apparently new position on a limited test ban and the question of a non-aggression agreement, but it seems to me at least possible that we can work out a bargain which in effect produces the kind of standstill agreement that you spoke of to me.⁴ It is essential to us, of course, that any such arrangement protect all our interests, but it may be, as you suggested that Khrushchev is becoming ready to accept this kind of standstill, instead of the one-sided agreements he has sought in the past.

In any event, this is what we must now find out, and I doubt if we shall know much more until after Harriman has been to Moscow. Meanwhile, my people will be in close consultation with yours, and I will be sure to get in touch with you personally if there is any important new development. In the meantime, I have asked Mr. Rusk to make sure that all our people avoid any public statements which might seem to prejudge the matter one way or another, and if you should think it useful, I hope you may be able to take a similar line with your people.

I am particularly conscious that General de Gaulle may have reservations about any possible standstill, and I should be glad to have your own advice as to how the matter might best be discussed with him after your talks with him are over. I persist in my conviction that the real interests of all our nations are the same and that we must find ways of pursuing them in increasing unity.”

Rusk

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 7 US/Kennedy. Secret; Operational Immediate. Drafted by Bromley Smith.
1. This meeting was held in Bonn July 4-5.
2. Kennedy was in Germany June 23-26.
3. See Document 309.
4. No record has been found of the President’s private meeting with the Chancellor the morning of June 24. That afternoon, Kennedy and Adenauer discussed the test ban briefly with others present. (Memorandum by Creel; Department of State, Central Files, POL 7 US/Kennedy) See the Supplement.