Office of the Historian

83. Letter From Chancellor Adenauer to President Eisenhower1

Bonn, December 4, 1956.

My Dear Mr. President: I am especially grateful that you, although preoccupied right now with so many acute problems, found the time to give such extensive consideration to my worries reported to you by General Gruenther.2

The particularly close interdependence of all European affairs should serve as an explanation for my deep concern, though at a first glance the Federal Republic is not immediately affected by all pending questions. Permit me, my dear Mr. President, to express to you two additional ideas:

After your re-election by such an overwhelming majority, your leadership is more than ever the strong and only hope for the free nations that they will survive in this dangerous period of mankind. Our heartfelt prayers are with you.

Let me make, my dear Mr. President, one other point: The developments of the last months, the brutal actions of the Soviet Union everywhere, with arms and other means confirm my opinion that Europe remains the main target of Soviet policy and aggression. P[ar] e[xample], there are more than 7000 tanks in the Soviet occupied zone pointing towards Germany and Western Europe. If the Soviet Union holds Europe, she will control Asia as well. If her position in Europe will be reduced to natural proportions by restricting her power, she can no longer entertain any hope to gain Asia, too. Therefore, the Soviet Union still strives for the control of Europe, in spite of all deviating maneuvers and all present assurances which she will break at a time she considers opportune. The domination of Europe would give to the Soviet Union the key to the control of the world she strives for.

I hope you will understand, my dear Mr. President, why I have reiterated these ideas and convictions. I do so because I believe that the freedom of the world was never—not even in Hitler’s time—so much endangered as in these years.

Very sincerely yours,

Adenauer
3
  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File. Secret. The source text indicates it is a translation. It bears no indication how it was transmitted to Washington.↩
  2. President Eisenhower’s message to Adenauer is printed as Document 81; for the Chancellor’s message to the President, see Document 80.↩
  3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩