Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Germany and Austria, Volume VII, Part 1

Eisenhower Library, C. D. Jackson papers

No. 403
The Special Assistant to the President (Jackson) to Marie McCrum, White House Secretary¹

Berlin, February 1, 1954.

Dear Machari: [Here follows a paragraph in which Jackson discussed his staff at the conference.]

Bidault is really emerging as quite a hero. He made the best speech of the whole week last Saturday.² I hope it was reproduced in full in the Times as you should read it. If it wasn’t printed I am sure State has a transcript. He has consistently shown a lot of guts and by now has come out so squarely for EDC and so boldly for German elections and freedom that he will never be able to crawl back on that limb.

JFD is also quite a hero. He has consistently made courageous sense and if we covered so much ground the first week it was due to his generalship and constant tactical brilliance during debate. Time after time he outmaneuvered Molotov and put him in the kind of corner from which the only way out was either filibustering which public opinion would not tolerate or giving way which he did three times last week. I am not implying that we have won but I am saying that we are putting up the kind of hard, smart fight that Mr. M is not accustomed to from our side and most of the credit should go to JFD. It was his instant decision to accept M’s agenda and it was a brilliant key move which threw M off balance and permitted us to get to the German question within the first week. We might still be hassling over the agenda and would have had to face the 5 Power issue anyhow. Even though it hasn’t been killed but only referred to a meeting of the Ministers alone it can never come back with the same bloom.

You are quite right that the Western solidarity is greater today than when we first met in Bermuda.³ That is due to a few successes and the feeling that diminishing returns have set in on M’s shopworn techniques. He just doesn’t frighten them any more, and here again credit should go to JFD. He showed them how to talk up to the invincible and omnipotent Mr. M. When he said the equivalent of “Now listen Mr. M, that is a lot of obscenity, very old obscenity, which you have been trotting out for years, and you know it. We came here to solve the problems of Germany and Austria. The people of the world are not going to tolerate this ridiculous performance. Now when are you going to stop the nonsense and get on with the job?” and it worked, the other two realized that maybe we did have the initiative and that all three should crowd him.

Speaking of Bidault, I don’t see that the dictionary does anything more than give him an option.

By all means take the time off.

Today was the first day in the Soviet sector,⁴ rather exciting. I felt like an old hand as I had had dinner in the Embassy last Thursday.⁵ The mechanical facilities are nowhere near as good as in our building. Smaller room, therefore limited delegation. No microphones or electrical translation equipment. Molotov talked for 50 minutes and that meant two hours and a half when you add on the English and French translations.

However, their buffet was superb with Zarubin trying to funnel vodka down my throat. JFD dropped by our little table and Zarubin offered him a glass of Georgian wine. JFD said, “No thanks, I’d rather have vodka” and did. Wonderful. He is also very good at working with his staff. He consults them constantly and listens and frequently takes suggestions contradicting his ideas without a quiver.

My day starts at 7:15, breakfast and papers. Office a little before 9 to start reading the cables of which there is an incredible pile each day, about an inch thick. At 9 I have a meeting with my little Berlin OCB consisting of Tyler, Griffith, Boerner, Anspacher, Hamilton. At 9:30 the entire delegation meets to hear world press reaction, exchange problems, receive announcements and get the line from JFD or MacArthur. Then begins a fairly hectic series of meetings preparing for the day’s conference, drafting speeches, editing, batting up ideas, getting research lined up for emergencies etc. There is just barely time to get this done and we frequently wind up doing the last bit in the car on the way to the conference, like on the plane on the way up from Bermuda, only every day. Around 2:30 we leave for the conference. Each of us has a car and military driver assigned. As most of the drivers were brought up from Munich or Heidelberg and had never seen Berlin which is a tremendous sprawling city, the chances of getting lost are rather high. The meetings last until 6 or 7. We then have a meeting with the press briefing boys and decide on the line. I then go to the briefing to keep a fatherly eye on the performance. Then back to the office, at 8, 9, 10 depending on length of press meeting. Try to clean things up with Mildred A.⁶ Then dinner which frequently doesn’t start until 10 or 11. Then two or three nights there is stuff to prepare for the next day so that I never manage to get to bed before 12 and I guess my average is closer to 2. And then I have to wash my goddam nylons which is fun the first time but after that a chore of the first magnitude. So I would say that the tax-payers are getting their money’s worth.

Today Molotov really uncorked his major filibuster on German elections and rearmament and EDC. He threw in everything, the U.S. bases, the Kersten amendment, Hitler, American subversion, the Nazis in the Bonn government, the German military spirit, etc., etc., etc. All of it old stuff. He practically wooed Bidault in public. In the middle of it I slipped Merchant a note saying “I didn’t think he would get his hand above Bidault’s knee so soon”. Merchant laughed and left the note in front of him where it was solemnly read by JFD a while later. He turned around and winked. Tomorrow will be a big day because we will have to slap him down hard and try to get him back to the central business. In fact tomorrow may be decisive. I have some interesting things on the stove with some friends.

Well, my dear, the time is now 12:55 and this little negotiator is going to bye-bye. I have no dope whatsoever on Rome or on windup of this business. Will let you know as soon as there is something. I think of the inmates of 234 often and with great affection and gratitude.

CD

P.S. You might consider excerpting some of these paragraphs and circulating to a few real pals, Craig, Bobby, Beedle, Allen, Abbott, Ann.⁷ Don’t do it unless you think it is a good idea.

Triple best

CD

1. The C.D. Jackson papers include another shorter version of this same letter. It is not clear to the editors how these two different versions may have been used.
2. For a record of the sixth plenary meeting on Jan. 30, see Secto 56, Document 390.
3. For documentation on the Bermuda conference, Dec. 4–8, 1953, see vol. v, Part 2, pp. 1710 ff.
4. For a report on the seventh plenary meeting of the conference, see Sectos 65 and 66, Documents 398 and 399.
5. For a record of the dinner meeting at in the Soviet Embassy on Jan. 28, see the notes by Jackson and the memorandum of conversation by Merchant, Documents 385 and 386.
6. Mildred Avallone, Jackson’s secretary during the Berlin Conference.
7. The identity of these people is not certain. Beedle, Allen, and Ann are respectively, Under Secretary of State Smith, Allen Dulles, Director of Central Intelligence, and Ann Whitman, President Eisenhower’s secretary. Craig and Bobby are possibly Peter Craig of the OCB, and Robert Cutler, Special Assistant to the President. The reference to Abbott has not been identified further.