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

39. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) to President Johnson¹

Washington, May 16, 1964.

SUBJECT

• Your meeting with Mayor Willy Brandt, Monday, May 18, 12:00 noon²

The German election campaign for 1965 is already under way and Mayor Brandt’s visit here on Monday, just as Erhard’s in June, is an important element in that campaign.

Brandt is bright, easy, and affable, but is very leaky. You can count on the substance of your private conversations with him reaching the German press in relatively short order. And since he is running hard against Erhard for the Chancellorship, he is not above using the substance of his talks with you for firing broadsides against Erhard. Therefore what we say to him must be the things that will not bounce back on us while he leaks them.

The two principal controversial issues between Brandt and Erhard now are (1) the question of passes which would permit West Berliners to visit East Berlin (at the present time, West Germans can visit East Germany but West Berliners cannot enter East Berlin), and (2) tactics in the German struggle for reunification.

In connection with the passes, Erhard has admitted frankly he is bothered by Brandt’s exploitation of the issue and has made it clear he will not permit the Mayor to continue to exploit it for the benefit of the Socialists. In dealing with this problem you might remind the Mayor of your statement on the 15th anniversary of NATO in which you said, “We did not make the Iron Curtain. We did not build the Wall. Gaps in the Curtain are welcome, and so are holes in the Wall, whenever they are not hedged by traps.”³ The point that Brandt should take away with him is that although we feel every effort should be made to “humanize” the Wall, the means for accomplishing this should be worked out jointly by Bonn and Berlin, in consultation with the Western Allies, who continue to bear responsibility for the security of Berlin.

There is essentially the same kind of problem in dealing with reunification. The Erhard government is now wrestling with an unsatisfactory plan for which allied endorsement is being sought, while the Socialists are looking on in amused silence. Your own position on reunification was made quite clear both during your meetings with Erhard at the Ranch and in your NATO anniversary speech in which you said, “We continue to believe that the peace of all Europe requires the reunification of the German people in freedom.” The point that should be made with Brandt here is that the United States is prepared to support any sensible proposal which truly advances and does not undermine the cause of reunification, and will work closely with its British, French and German allies to this end. This will probably be used by Brandt to show that we are for realism on these matters—but so we are, and it doesn’t hurt to have it known.

Brandt’s advance agent, his press secretary Egon Bahr, has indicated that the Mayor also intends to ask you specifically what the Germans should do to meet the Soviets part way to allay legitimate concerns about Germany and facilitate the achievement of a détente. To encourage him without giving him, too, ammunition with which to bludgeon the Bonn Government, you might cite as an example of what the U.S. Government has in mind the recent German effort to establish useful and constructive working relationships with Eastern Europe (trade missions in Poland, Hungary, Rumania and Czechoslovakia). This is a helpful move in the right direction. It is our hope that the Germans will continue to take every reasonable step to reassure the Eastern Europeans of Germany’s peaceful intentions and carefully consider all reasonable proposals to this end which do not threaten the freedom and security of West Germany and West Berlin.

Further points which may arise in the meeting with the Mayor are covered in the attached briefing paper prepared by the Department of State (Tab A).⁴

McG. B.

1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Germany, Brandt Visit, 1964. Confidential.
2. No record of the May 18 meeting was found, but see Document 41.
3. For text of the April 3 speech, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964, Book I, pp. 433–436.
4. Not printed.