140. Memorandum of Conversation1
Washington, December 20, 1965, 11:30 a.m.
SUBJECT
- Offset
PARTICIPANTS
-
US
- The President
- Ambassador Hand
- Mr. Jack Valenti
- Harry Obst, State Department interpreter
-
German
- Chancellor Ludwig Erhard
- Heinz Weber, FRG interpreter
The President said he expected the FRG to make another payment under the offset agreement this month so as not to upset the quarterly balance of US finances and not to weaken the international confidence in the dollar.
The Chancellor explained that after the election he was forced to pare his budget by 10%. He had to resort to such extreme measures as the repeal of some laws already on the books. This was not to say that the FRG did not want to keep its commitments. The FRG would be willing to talk about this matter but at present it had considerable difficulties.
- Source: Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 66 D 347, CF 2571. Secret. Drafted by Obst and approved in the White House on December 30. The meeting was held at the White House. The source text is marked “Part III of III.” A memorandum of conversation of the discussion of the Great Society and Space, “Part I of III,” is ibid. The portion of the conversation on Vietnam is Document 139.↩