Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume X, Eastern Europe

296. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in the German Democratic Republic¹

191088.

Washington, June 21, 1987, 0719Z

SUBJECT

• GDR Embassy Official on East-West and US-GDR Relations.

1. GDR Embassy Political Counselor Birgel invited GDR Desk Officer Lane to lunch June 18 to discuss bilateral and East-West issues.

2. Birgel posed a series of questions about the President’s June 12 Berlin speech. He wondered if the speech’s harsh treatment of the GDR and the Wall, coupled with our recent terrorism demarche,² signalled a new hardening in bilateral relations, one directed by a White House responding to right wing criticism of President Reagan’s rush to an arms control agreement. He asked plaintively whether Reagan’s call to Gorbachev³ (rather than Honecker) to tear down the Wall was prompted by US policy toward Berlin or simply done to snub the GDR Government. He inquired further if the President’s reference to German reunification had been toned down, as alleged in some press accounts, and whether “the softer approach” represented a change in US policy. Finally, he asked if the reference to North Korean participation in the 1988 Olympics as an example for greater Berlin hosting future Olympic games represented a subtle change in US policy toward North Korea (sic).

3. On broader East-West issues and GDR relations with the Soviet Union, Birgel foresaw for the mid-term greater cooperation between the GDR and Western European countries in the event of an INF agreement and conventional arms reductions. He likewise envisaged social changes in the GDR, although he supplied no specific examples. Hungarian economic reforms were not a good prototype, given that country’s current problems, he opined. Nor did he expect GDR guest workers in Western Europe.

4. Birgel claimed the Western media exaggerated GDR concerns about Gorbachev’s reforms. He admitted many GDR citizens were intrigued by glasnost, and alluded to rock concert listeners who had chanted the Soviet leader’s name in the streets of Berlin. In a vague, rambling and, at times cryptic elaboration, Birgel said some GDR bureaucrats have sought to identify themselves with Gorbachev and his program in order to advance their own position. He himself again expressed interest in seeing GDR society open, but at a slow and calculated pace. Birgel suggested GDR bureaucrats wrapping themselves in Gorbachevian cloth have thought little about the consequences of such reforms in the GDR.

5. In response to a question about the recent Warsaw Pact summit in Berlin, Birgel hinted he had heard Gorbachev alone had decided against a unilateral troop withdrawal. The proposal could always be revisited, Birgel noted.

6. Moscow minimize considered.

Armacost

1. Source: Reagan Library, Rudolf Perina Files, Subject File, GDR (German Democratic Republic)—Substance 1987 (2). Confidential. Sent for information to Bonn, West Berlin, Moscow, Budapest, Bucharest, Prague, Sofia, Seoul, and Belgrade.
2. Telegram 157349 to East Berlin, May 22, instructed the Ambassador to deliver a démarche to the highest Foreign Ministry official regarding East German support of terrorist group Abu Nidal. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D870644–0807)
3. See footnote 3, Document 293.