244. Editorial Note
Drafting the Western response to the Soviet note of March 2 began the week following its receipt. The Department of State transmitted its initial draft to Paris in telegram 3267 on March 6. (Department of State, Central Files, 396.1/3–659) Three days later the French distributed to the other Western powers a draft along similar lines. (Telegram 3262 from Paris, March 9; ibid., 762.00/3–959) Correlation of these two drafts and suggestions by the British and West Germans was undertaken by the Four-Power Working Group in Paris, March 12–14 (see Document 242), but work on the drafts was suspended at British insistence until Prime Minister Macmillan had visited Washington. During this visit the Prime Minister and President Eisenhower agreed on language regarding a Summit Conference and the agenda for a Foreign Ministers meeting.
The draft text was then taken up again by the Four-Power Working Group for agreement by the French and West Germans. Final agreement was reached by the Working Group on March 23, and the text was then discussed for 2 days by the North Atlantic Council. Documentation on the drafting of the reply, including the several drafts mentioned above, is in Department of State, Central Files 396.1 and 762.00.
At 10:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. in Washington) on March 26 Ambassador Thompson delivered to Foreign Minister Gromyko the United States reply to the Soviet note of March 2. The note proposed that the Foreign Ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union convene at Geneva on May 11 to consider questions relating to Germany including a peace treaty and Berlin. The purpose of the Foreign Ministers meeting would be to reach agreements or in any case to narrow the differences between the two sides in preparation for a Summit conference later in the summer.
“On this understanding and as soon as developments in the Foreign Ministers meeting justify holding a Summit Conference, the United States Government would be ready to participate in such a conference.”
The note continued that the United States recognized the interests of Poland and Czechoslovakia in certain issues that might arise at the conference, but stated that “at least at the outset” only the four powers responsible for Germany should be involved. For text of the United States reply, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1959, pages 638–639; for text of the British reply, see Cmd. 719, pages 9–10; for text of the West Germany reply, see Moskau Bonn, page 539; for text of the French reply, see Le Monde, March 27, 1959, page 12.
On March 30 the Soviet Union replied to the Western notes, accepting the place and date for the Foreign Ministers meeting. Ambassador Thompson transmitted the note in telegram 1966 from Moscow, [Page 533] March 30. (Department of State, Central Files, 396.1–GE/3–3059) For the text sent to the British, see Embree, Soviet Union and the German Question, pages 154–155; for the text to the West Germans, see Moskau Bonn, page 540; for the text sent to the French, see Le Monde, April 1, 1959, page 4.