762.022/7–2753: Telegram
No. 639
The Secretary of
State to the Office of the United
States High Commissioner for Germany, at Bonn1
382. Department hopes very much that Adenauer will not make campaign issue out of Saar problem and suggests that HICOG endeavor by every suitable way to dissuade him from course indicated in Blankenhorn conversation (urtel 413 repeated Paris 54 London 43 Strasbourg 22).
Recognized that SPD will probably attempt build fire under Government on Saar issue, but it seems to us that Adenauer has strong defense position as it is, based on record Bundestag resolutions and his provisional conversations with French. Although we in no sense wish dictate how he should conduct campaign, it is proper to question necessity of his taking offensive on this particular issue, and fair to warn him of damage that can be done to Germany’s international relations by far-reaching campaign utterances which he hopes to ignore later. It should be made plain to Chancellor that under no circumstances can US be associated with any views he may express on Saar which go beyond public record of our position as stated in past and most recently in communiqués following Mayer and Adenauer visits.3
- Drafted by Kidd, cleared by McBride, Matthews, and Bonbright, and initialed for the Secretary of State by Lewis. Repeated to London, Paris, Berlin, and Strasbourg.↩
- Telegram 413 reported Blankenhorn’s view that the Chancellor would have to make clear during the election campaign that he considered the Saar to be German territory, but that he would do his utmost to be as inoffensive as possible to France in his statements on the Saar, (762.022/7–2753)↩
- For text of the communiqué on Adenauer’s visit, see Document 185.↩