469. Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Kohler) to Acting Secretary of State Dillon0
Washington,
July 22,
1959.
SUBJECT
- JCS Views on Berlin
- 1.
- On July 18 Secretary McElroy telegraphed the views of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on a possible Berlin proposal to Assistant Secretary of Defense Irwin, who is the Defense representative on the Geneva delegation, and instructed him to present them to the Secretary for possible use at the Conference.
- 2.
- The JCS proposes that the West should put forward “an initial demand for transferring to the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Germany a 100 mile-wide land and air corridor between Helmstedt and Berlin. Negotiating range would be between this demand and a final fallback position of a 60-mile-wide corridor, with control of Western traffic vested in the Western Allies”. Mr. McElroy said he believed “that this proposal has considerable merit since it permits the West to take the initiative, and, if properly exploited, places us in a most favorable light in the forum of public opinion, regardless of the Soviet reaction.” (A copy of the JCS proposal is attached at Tab A.)1
- 3.
- The proposal of a land corridor to Berlin under West German sovereignty was carefully considered by the planners in December and January. (It was often combined with the proposal that Berlin be made into an eleventh Land of the Federal Republic.) These proposals were not incorporated in the Western plans because it was considered that they were so obviously non-negotiable. (In this connection it should be noted that the 100-mile corridor to Berlin the JCS proposes would include about one-fourth of East Germany.) Although such a notion has been advocated by various people in the United States, it was never seriously discussed in Germany because it did not seem sufficiently realistic. Such a possibility was barely mentioned in the German press. In our opinion, it would be quite out of keeping with the development of the Conference and the Western approach to introduce such an idea at this stage.
- 4.
- I have written a letter of acknowledgment to General Guthrie who sent me a copy of Secretary McElroy’s message.
- 5.
- In my opinion the delegation in Geneva is fully equipped to deal with the JCS proposal since it includes members who went through all of the Working Group exercises in which similar ideas were considered and rejected.