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

38. Telegram From the Embassy in Germany to the Department of State¹

Bonn, May 16, 1964, 7 p.m.

4223. I do not wish to raise any question with respect to the wisdom of the Dept’s policy, up to this point, of not supporting the German reunification proposals made to the Ambassadorial Group. I fully understand that broader considerations are involved including our current relations with the Soviets. The fact is, however, that before the recent NATO Ministerial Meeting at The Hague ForMin Schroeder made a strong appeal to us (Embtel 3824)² for support, and the Chancellor a similar strong and direct appeal to the President (Embtel 4100).³

I will see the Chancellor on May 22 to convey to him orally the message accompanying Ambassador Thompson’s letter to me of May 4,⁴ just received yesterday. It would be very helpful if I could present to him at that time, also orally, a message from the President giving the rationale behind our negative reaction to the German proposals, and, if possible, advising what our attitude will be during the reconsideration of these proposals in the Ambassadorial Group, as agreed upon by the four Foreign Ministers at The Hague.

I believe that we must keep in mind that we have hit the Germans very hard in recent weeks, at the highest levels, for a number of relatively important things we want them to do, i.e. the offset implementing agreement, and assistance to South Vietnam, to which they responded favorably, as well as the subject raised here May 6 by Komer and Sloan,⁵ to which they may not. There has, as a result, been a perceptible reaction here in the last few days, both on the part of officials and the press, to our recent requests. I would hope, therefore, that the Presidential message would, in addition, express appreciation for the offset agreement and the strong German support to our policy in South Vietnam contained in the McNamara-von Hassel communiqué,⁶ as well as for the subsequent German efforts to respond to McNamara’s request for a medical unit.

I believe we should, moreover, delay for the time being any further new requests of the Germans involving any substantial contributions or sacrifices on their part. It is for this reason that I do not believe a visit by AID Director Bell to press for additional development aid, although normally quite a desirable thing, would be so at this time. This is particularly true in view of the fact that next year’s budget is now so frozen that we could not realistically expect it to be changed.

McGhee

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files,POL 32–4 GER. Secret; Limdis. Passed to the White House.
2. Telegram 3824 from Bonn, April 22, reported Schroeder’s comments on German reunification proposals. (Ibid.)
3. Document 35.
4. Not found.
5. No documentation on this meeting was found.
6. McNamara visited Germany May 9–11. For text of the communiqué released at the conclusion of the talks, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1964, pp. 531–532.