Office of the Historian

190. Message From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to the Ambassador to Germany (Rush)1

Washington, March 3, 1971.

I met with Dobrynin on February 282 and handed him your formulation of the access proposal. I said it might be well for Abrasimov to introduce it in the Four Power context. Dobrynin said that he recognized that some advance had been made but the principles themselves were probably too unchanged to meet with Moscow’s approval. I said we had gone as far as possible.

Dobrynin inquired about the Federal Presence issue. I said that we should make progress on access first and then I was certain the presence question could be looked at in a new light. Dobrynin said that their perception was exactly the opposite. He would report to Moscow and let me know.

We seem to have reached the same deadlock you have in Berlin.

The only other interesting item is that Dobrynin told me Abrasimov was now instructed to discuss limitations on committee and party group meetings with you. I told him that I doubted we would proceed pending progress on access.

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 59, Country Files, Europe, Ambassador Rush, Berlin, Vol. 1 [2 of 2]. Top Secret; Exclusively Eyes Only. Kissinger’s handwritten draft is attached to the message, which was sent through the special Navy channel in Frankfurt; no time of transmission or receipt appears on the message.↩
  2. Kissinger met Dobrynin on February 26, not February 28, from 6 to 6:43 p.m. (Record of Schedule; Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, Box 438, Miscellany, 1968–76) According to the memorandum of conversation, the meeting was held in the Map Room at the White House. The memorandum notes that “the major topic of conversation was Berlin. I handed Dobrynin the Rush formulation on access [see Document 187]. The rest of the conversation went as described in the cable to Rush.” (National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 490, President’s Trip Files, Dobrynin/Kissinger, 1971, Vol. 4 [Part 1]) Kissinger also sent the following message to Bahr on March 3: “Met Dobrynin on Feb. 28 [sic]. I told him that unilateral access guarantee would be acceptable provided principles were agreeable. I stressed that no progress was possible on the issue of Federal Presence until we had some agreement on access. Dobrynin said that their problem was exactly the opposite. We agreed to meet again after he had heard from Moscow.” (Ibid., Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Europe, Box 60, Egon Bahr, Berlin File [3 of 3])↩