100. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) to President Johnson 1

SUBJECT

  • Western reply to Soviets on Berlin meeting2
1.
I attach for information the text of the Western reply to Soviet protests on the Berlin meeting of the Bundestag.3
2.
The language is not perfect, but that is the consequence of 4-Power coordination, and speed is more important than fighting over words in these matters.
3.
Nitpicks aside, the message is clear, firm, and even-tempered, and I think the State Department has done a good job of coordinating. Since it meets your guidance at lunch yesterday, George Ball and I have signed off on it and it is being delivered today.
McG. B.
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Germany, Berlin, vol. 1. No classification marking.
  2. Following a March announcement by the Federal Republic that it would hold a meeting of the Bundestag in Berlin, East German authorities began to block Autobahn and rail and canal traffic for periods of time beginning April 1 to impede Bundestag members from reaching Berlin.
  3. Not printed. For text of the Soviet note and the U.S. reply, see Documents on Germany, 1944–1985, pp. 891–893. Identical notes were delivered to the Soviet Union by France and Great Britain.