Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E-15, Part 2, Documents on Western Europe, 1973–1976, Second, Revised Edition

294. Memorandum From the Counselor (Sonnenfeldt) and Jan Lodal of the National Security Council Staff to Secretary of State Kissinger¹

Washington, October 10, 1975.

SUBJECT

• Offset

You will recall that during Chancellor Schmidt’s visit last week offset did not come up in discussions with you or the President. However, in conversations with Sonnenfeldt, Schmidt’s assistant Hiss and then Schmidt himself indicated that he would not object to private and limited exploration of what might be done. Schmidt stated that any talks which might be initiated would be without prejudice to his position that “he will not pay an additional cent.”

It may be that an arrangement can be worked out in the context of financing facilities for the additional brigade which will be deployed in Northern Germany. There are of course political problems on both sides. For domestic reasons the FRG does not wish to appear to be involved in negotiations. The converse is true for us. We want to demonstrate that we are making some progress on this issue in order to head off another Jackson-Nunn Amendment or legislated unilateral withdrawals from our forces in Europe. The Germans yesterday put out a low-key announcement that they expect “middle-level” official discussions on offset to take place. This is helpful.

On October 8 Von Staden informed Sonnenfeldt that Hermes of the FRG Foreign Ministry wants to visit Washington during the week of October 20 to cover a number of issues and will be prepared to discuss offset.

In order to ease things in the US bureaucracy and protect the privacy of these talks, it might be useful to have as the US representative someone outside the regular bureaucratic structure. Nat Samuels would be ideal for the job. Presumably he could be assisted by one or two experts with the required financial and technical background.

Recommendation

That you approve initiation of talks on offset during the Hermes’ visit along the lines described above. (We prefer.)

Alternatively, that two officers from the Department (e.g., Jules Katz and George Vest) be authorized to conduct a preliminary discussion with Hermes after which we take stock and decide on how and with what cast of characters to proceed.

1. Summary: Sonnenfeldt discussed the status of the U.S. request for a new bilateral offset agreement with the FRG.

   Source: National Archives, RG 59, Records of the Office of the Counselor, Helmut C. Sonnenfeldt, 1955–1977, Entry 5339, Box 5, Germany 1975. Secret; Exclusively Eyes Only. Sonnenfeldt initialed the memorandum on Lodal’s behalf. Kissinger initialed his approval of the first recommendation. Schmidt and Ford met in Washington on October 3; a memorandum of conversation on their talks, during which they discussed the economic summit, Spain, arms sales policy, and SALT II, is in Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Memoranda of Conversation, Box 15.