Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Central and Southeastern Europe, Volume XXVI

106. Letter From the Secretary of State to the President¹

Paris, May 4, 1957.

Dear Mr. President: I dictate this en route from Bonn to Paris. I have just had a most interesting session of over three hours with the Chancellor. Also present on his side were Foreign Minister Von Brentano, Defense Minister Strauss and General Heusinger. A full memorandum of our talk is being prepared² and will I think be worth your reading particularly in anticipation of the Chancellor’s visit to you.

The high spot was the Chancellor’s deep concern over UK developments. The combination of their white paper policies and their collapse in the Middle East, including what he considers their bad military performance in Suez, make him deeply depressed. He feels that they cannot be relied upon to fight in Western Germany and therefore pleads for some US troops to be moved north to stiffen the northern front and to make the Russians realize that if they attacked they would have to fight US and not merely UK.

I endeavored to reassure him that while we felt that inevitable adjustments were occurring in British policy and military dispositions, we still felt that Britain was a strong and dependable ally.

Obviously Macmillan will have quite a job to do when he speaks with the Chancellor on Monday.

While we were talking, a new Soviet note was delivered³ It was read to the Chancellor and myself. In essence it referred to a prior Federal Republic statement that it did not have, and had not asked for, atomic weapons. The Soviet note said this was unsatisfactory unless it meant that the Federal Republic would not ask for, and would not permit, atomic weapons on its soil.

I suggested that the Chancellor should reply in effect that the Federal Republic had one supreme obligation which it would fulfill, that was never to allow its soil to be used for aggressive purposes; but that it did not accept dictation from anyone as to how to defend itself, least of all from a nation which had forcibly annexed the eastern zone and 20 million Germans.

The Chancellor seemed to like this and it was suggested that Von Brentano should pay me a per diem for having done his work.

The Chancellor is indeed perplexed about how to handle during the election period the atomic problem. The issue is being exploited by the Socialists, and the scientists and the churchmen, particularly Evangelical, are making life difficult for him.

I suggested that would be a good idea if we could have stationed at our Embassy for the next few weeks someone knowledgeable in these matters who could help meet the emotional appeals which are becoming the battle cry of his political opposition. The government officials themselves are too ignorant of these matters to know what to say.

This idea was warmly welcomed by the Chancellor; and if you think it has possibilities you might want to speak to Lewis Strauss about it. Of course it would have to be handled with great care, but I think Bruce can be relied upon to do so. The Chancellor also said the atomic expert should preferably be able to speak German.

Defense Minister Strauss gave the most categorical assurances regarding the West German military build-up. He said they were planning to have nine divisions in being by the end of 1958 and would begin on the last three in 1959, provided the US is in a position to supply the armor for the armored divisions to meet this time schedule. He also said that the alleged delay in their armored divisions was not due to their asking for later deliveries of tanks as had been reported, but due to the fact that they could not get any early delivery date from our people.

The Chancellor sent his warmest greetings to you and said he eagerly looked forward to seeing you.

Faithfully yours,

Foster

⁴

1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Dulles/Herter. Top Secret; Priority. Transmitted to the Department of State eyes only for the Acting Secretary in Dulte 9 from Paris, May 4, which is the source text. The source text bears the President’s initials indicating that he saw it.
2. Supra.
3. See footnote 5, supra.
4. Dulte 9 bears this typed signature.