Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XV, Germany and Berlin

120. Memorandum From the Ambassador at Large (Thompson) to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)¹

Washington, June 23, 1965.

The Secretary, George Ball, the German boys, and I had a useful discussion yesterday with Dean Acheson and Jack McCloy on the helicopter problem in Berlin.² There was no disagreement with the steps we are already taking, such as official representations in Moscow and/or the three capitals. It was also agreed that we should press the Germans to suspend negotiations between Airflot and Lufthansa relating this to the helicopter problem.

The main issue discussed was whether or not we should ourselves resume helicopter flights over East Berlin. The military are in general opposed to doing this at this time as they fear that linking these with the East German flights might end in our losing our right to fly over East Berlin. We probably have little chance of stopping the East German flights over East Berlin unless we take some very strong action, such as paralleling their flights along the sector border with flights of our own inside East Berlin. It is not certain that this would lead to cessation of their flights but if it did, we would probably end up by having to give up our own flights.

The general judgment of Acheson and McCloy was that we should maintain the legal position that all East German flights are a violation of quadripartite rules but that in fact we only act to prevent the East Germans flying over East Berlin. They would go quite far in this connection even to the point of using force to bring down an East German helicopter over West Berlin.

The Secretary suggested we should investigate the “dirty tricks” department to see if we could not make the East Germans look ridiculous. The most hopeful idea which we are investigating is to encourage West Berlin youths to fly kites along the sector borders to harass the East German flights.

General Clay was not available but may be able to come down tomorrow.

Tommy

1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Germany, vol. 8. Secret.
2. As part of the campaign of harassment undertaken by East German authorities at the time of the April Bundestag meeting in Berlin, East German helicopters began to enter the Berlin control zone and air corridors between West Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany with increasing frequency. For text of the April 8 U.S. protest note, see Documents on Germany, 1944–1985, pp. 893–894. In a June 23 memorandum to the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended “concerted political action by the Western allies” to force the Soviet and East German authorities to cease this harassment. (Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Germany, vol. 8)