Overview

This volume represents a departure in coverage on Germany and Berlin in the Foreign Relations series. Previous volumes covered bilateral relations between the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany in breadth, including documentation on economic and military issues, as well as on matters of politics and diplomacy. Although this volume covers such issues, especially when decision-making was at a high level, more extensive documentation on discussions between Washington and Bonn on international economics and national security has been—and will be—published in other volumes: Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, Volume III, Foreign Economic Policy, 1969–1972; International Monetary Policy, 1969–1972; and Volume XLI, Western Europe; NATO, 1969–1972. This volume examines key issues in German-American relations in more depth, emphasizing two issues in particular: the response of the Nixon administration to Chancellor Willy Brandt and his Eastern policy (Ostpolitik); and the secret negotiations leading to signature of the Berlin quadripartite agreement in September 1971. Moscow was a key player in the diplomacy behind both Bonn’s Ostpolitik and the Berlin agreement. This volume, therefore, also focuses on the Soviet Union, and places bilateral relations between the United States and the Federal Republic in the context of the competition between the two superpowers. This is, in other words, a “cold war” volume—or perhaps, more accurately, a “détente” volume—and thus should be read in conjunction with Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, Volume XII, Soviet Union, January 1969–October 1970; Volume XIII, Soviet Union, October 1970–October 1971; and Volume XIV, Soviet Union, October 1971–May 1972.