Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, Germany and Austria, Volume II

740.00119 Control (Germany)/10–1248: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy in France ¹

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Washington, October 12, 1948—8 p. m.

4003. For Bohlen. In view of the Sov disregard of Aug 30 directive we do not regard ourselves legally bound to revert to its terms. On the other hand the directive as interpreted by the three Western Powers would represent an acceptable solution of the Berlin problem provided the blockade is lifted.

In the event the above approach is used, it would, of course, be necessary to define the expression “as interpreted by the Western Powers”. It appears to us here the best expression of our interpretation of the directive is contained in our aide-mémoire of September 14² and in particular in para 8 of that aide-mémoire.

For your info while we might be willing to resume negotiations on this basis, experience has shown that the directive is not satisfactory as at present drafted. (Delga 290³) The technical committee points out further the difficulties evident from the earlier discussions of specifying the needs of Berlin as envisaged by the Western Powers and the protection for the Soviet zone sought by Russia may make it necessary at some stage in the negotiations to consider other possibilities, including the use of a third currency which would not be subject to these limitations. See ourtel 3973.⁴

Lovett

1. Repeated to Berlin as 1719.
2. For the text of this aide-mémoire, see telegram 1101, September 12, to Moscow, p. 1152, and footnote 3 thereto.
3. Not printed; it asked whether the Department still considered the Directive to be a valid basis for the resumption of negotiation on Berlin (740.00119 Control (Germany)/10–1148).
4. Not printed.