740.5/4–1653: Airgram
No. 183
The Secretary of
State to the Office of the United
States High Commissioner for Germany, at
Bonn
A–1570. At the request of Mr. Reinstein of the Bureau of German Affairs, Mr. Vialon and Col. De Maiziere of the Blank Ministry, who were members of the party which accompanied Chancellor Adenauer to Washington, attended an informal meeting in the Department on April 9. Additional representatives of the U.S. Government attending were Messrs. Moore and Fessenden of RA, Messrs. May and Jacobs of GER, Mr. Barringer and Colonel Green of the Department of Defense. Mr. Harris of HICOG joined the meeting briefly.
Mr. Reinstein opened the discussion by asking what was being done by the EDC Interim Commission on plans necessary to prompt establishment of the German contingents. Mr. Vialon explained that not a great deal of progress had been made lately. He said that the political situation had made rapid progress impossible. Perhaps now that the French had promised ratification it would be possible to discuss budgetary and production planning. However, rapid progress should not be expected before ratification. Mr. Vialon said he realized the U.S. regretted the lack of progress and the lack of a German utilization plan. He said the Germans had not had the necessary statistical basis but hoped to have it shortly. The main task of the next few weeks should be such planning and progress should be possible at a greater rate when ratification had been accomplished. Mr. Vialon reviewed briefly the work being done on production and armament planning, mentioning the inventories of existing contracts in the EDC countries.
Mr. Reinstein asked when the first year of the common budget would begin. Mr. Vialon explained that it would begin January 1, 1954 and that a “rump” budget would be prepared for that portion of 1953 during which the EDC Treaty was in operation. Mr. Reinstein asked if a decision was possible on when the first year’s budget could be developed by the EDC. He said that he thought it would take quite a while and explained that he was concerned since its availability was related to the 1953 NATO Annual Review which would begin with the sending out of questionnaires in June.
Mr. Vialon said that lack of knowledge of the time of ratification and the lack of certainty as to ratification itself in France would make for slowness in the Interim Commission’s work. He said he [Page 449] thought plans could be developed quickly by the Federal Republic but it would not be realistic to expect them to emerge from the EDC until after French ratification.
Mr. Reinstein said that we were disappointed that so little had been done up until now. Much, he said remained to be done even after ratification. He asked Mr. Vialon what obstacles should be cleared away to the submission of a useful and realistic requirement and expenditure pattern for the German build-up in connection with the 1953 Annual Review. Mr. Reinstein asked what decisions should be taken now to get military requirements and a realistic expenditure forecast for the year 1954. Mr. Vialon referred to decisions which had to be taken by SHAPE and the EDC. Col. De Maiziere summarized the principal elements of German build-up expenditures (construction, matériel requirements, and pay and personnel expenditures). He referred to the EDC TO/E plans. He suggested that a clear U.S. request to the EDC Interim Committee that they prepare budget and production plans for all EDC units was needed very much. He said also that information on U.S. end-item deliveries was most important.
Mr. Reinstein and Mr. Barringer explained that U.S. end-item assistance was intended to supplement EDC efforts and said a major difficulty faced by the U.S. in stating its plans was the lack of knowledge as to what would be done by the EDC countries. Col. De Maiziere said it was obvious that the Germans could provide only light weapons and soft goods from their own production since it would take longer than the two year build-up to produce heavy equipment. Mr. Reinstein reiterated that the U.S. must know what the EDC is planning to do in Germany and other EDC countries in order to make decisions as to U.S. aid. Mr. Vialon said he understood, but was anxious to know what types of equipment the Germans could not expect to receive from the U.S. This, he said, would enable the EDC to plan to produce those things which they could not hope to obtain from the U.S. This, he said, would save much time in the EDC Interim Commission. It became clear that Mr. Vialon and Col. De Maiziere had not seen a copy of Mr. Nash’s statement on U.S. end-item assistance which had been given to the German delegation the previous day. (Department’s A–1507 to Bonn, Paris, and London, April 9.)1 Copies were shown to them and particular attention was drawn to the last paragraph in which it is stated that the U.S. is prepared to consider requests from the EDC Interim Commission for further information required for its planning and will make available information in greater detail, including [Page 450] prospective delivery schedules for U.S. end-item assistance after the EDC Treaty was ratified and Bilateral Agreements between the EDC and the U.S. and the Federal Republic and the U.S. have been concluded.
Mr. Vialon said he thought that the German group and the U.S. officials understood each other and we were in agreement that more rapid progress was necessary in the EDC Interim Commission. He asked that the U.S. officials understand the difficulties which resulted from the situation in which, until ratification, “all questions are political.”
Col. De Maiziere asked if there was anything he could report to Herr Blank with respect to Herr Blank’s desire to visit the U.S. in the near future. Mr. Jacobs said we had asked HICOG to tell Herr Blank that we would be happy to have him come to the U.S. and that we thought it would be best if he came in the middle or latter part of May, after new impetus has been given to the work of the EDC Interim Commission. Mr. Jacobs said we were confident that this message had been given to Mr. Blank by HICOG.
Copies of this airgram are being sent to London and Paris for SRE and U.S. Observer Group.
- For Nash’s statement, see the annex to GPT MIN–2, Document 179. Airgram A–1507 transmitted the text of the statement to Bonn, Paris, and London. (740.5/4–953)↩