Preface

The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major United States foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity of the United States Government. The series documents the facts and events that contributed to the formulation of policies and includes evidence of supporting and alternative views to the policy positions ultimately adopted.

The Historian of the Department of State is responsible for the preparation of the Foreign Relations series. The editing of the series in the Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, is guided by principles of historical objectivity and accuracy. Documents are not altered or deletions made without indicating where changes have been made. Every effort is made to identify lacunae in the record and to explain why they have occurred. Certain omissions may be necessary to protect national security or to condense the record and avoid needless repetition. The published record, however, omits no facts that were of major importance in reaching a decision, and nothing has been omitted for the purpose of concealing or glossing over a defect in policy.

At the time of the compilation of this volume in 1978 and 1979, the Department was guided in the preparation of the Foreign Relations series by official regulations first promulgated by Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg on March 26, 1925. A new statutory charter for the preparation of the Foreign Relations series was established by Title IV of Public Law 102–138, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993, which was signed by the President on October 28, 1991. That new charter requires that the Foreign Relations series “shall be a thorough, accurate, and reliable documentary record of major United States foreign policy decisions and significant United States diplomatic activity.” The new charter also requires that the Foreign Relations series be published “not more than 30 years after the events recorded.”

Structure and Scope of the Foreign Relations of the United States Series

This volume is part of a comprehensive subseries of 27 printed volumes and 4 microfiche supplements that document the most important issues in the foreign policy of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration. The subseries covers the years 1955 through 1957. In planning the overall scope of the Foreign Relations volumes for [Page IV] the 1955–1957 triennium, the editors chose to present the documentation on U.S. relations with and policy toward the nations of Europe in five separate volumes: Volume IV, Western European Security and Integration; Volume V, Austrian State Treaty; Summit and Foreign Ministers Meetings, 1955; Volume XXIV, Soviet Union and the Eastern Mediterranean; Volume XXV, Eastern Europe; Volume XXVI, Central and Southeastern Europe; and Volume XXVII, Western Europe. U.S.-Soviet relations dominate all these volumes, which were designed to address the major themes and topics in those relations as well as the principal political and economic aspects of U.S. relations and policies with the various nations of Europe. The scope and arrangement of the three volumes on Central and Eastern Europe reflect no particular geopolitical theories favored by the editors but rather respond to the need to present the considerable documentation on this area of U.S. foreign policy in three volumes of roughly equal length.

Sources for the Foreign Relations Series

The law requires that the published record contained in the Foreign Relations series must reflect all major foreign policy decisions and activities and include relevant documentation from all government agencies and entities involved in foreign policy formulation, execution, or support. The historical records of the Presidents and their national security advisers together with the still larger body of documentation in the Department of State are the principal sources for the Foreign Relations series. The National Archives and Records Administration, including the Presidential libraries that it administers, is the main repository and coordinating authority for historical government records and a major source for the documents and information included in the series. Specific sources used in preparing this volume are described in detail in the List of Sources, pages XI–XIV.

Principles of Selection for Foreign Relations, 1955–1957, Volume XXVI

This volume provides extensive documentation on U.S. policy toward Berlin and East Germany and on U.S. relations with West Germany, Austria, and Yugoslavia. Given the bulk of extant records, however, this volume includes only a selection of the most important documents dealing with U.S. policy toward the nations of Central and Southeastern Europe.

Several important topics have been used as the focal points for the selection of documents included in this volume. The documentation on Austria concentrates on the new relationship that the United States brought about by the signing of the Austrian State Treaty, while that on the Federal Republic of Germany examines the many facets of an already close relationship. Particular attention is given to [Page V] the meetings between Chancellor Adenauer and President Eisenhower. The documentation on Berlin outlines the Western response to the isolation of the city and frequent harassment of access by the Soviet Union. Documentation on the German Democratic Republic concentrates on the formulation of policy within the National Security Council toward a state with which the United States had no formal relations. Documentation on Yugoslavia focuses on U.S. economic and military assistance and other support intended to maintain Yugoslavia’s independence from the Soviet bloc.

President Eisenhower was often personally involved in the formulation of policy toward the Federal Republic of Germany and Berlin. The editors have used extensive materials available in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, including the memoranda of discussion at National Security Council meetings and other institutional NSC documents included in the Library’s Whitman file. Documents from the Eisenhower Library or copies in Department of State files constitute a major portion of the materials printed in these compilations. The editors also consulted documents originated by the Central Intelligence Agency found among the collections of the Eisenhower Library. That research was accomplished with the full cooperation and assistance of the CIA.

The Department of State and the Embassies in Vienna and Belgrade played continuous and important roles in the policy process. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles proposed various policies to the President and made significant decisions within the lines of established policies toward Austria and Yugoslavia, while the Embassies made important recommendations regarding all the major issues in U.S. relations with both countries. The editors have had complete access to all Department of State files including the central decimal files; the special files of the Executive Secretariat; the various decentralized (lot) files originally maintained at the bureau, office, or division level; and the Embassy and Berlin Mission files as retired to the Washington National Records Center of the National Archives and Records Administration.

The Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were also involved in questions of military assistance, high-level discussions with West Germany, and the status and security of Berlin. The editors have had access to the records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (International Security Affairs), declassified files of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the National Archives and Records Administration, other specified files of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Army Communications Center cable files formerly reposed at the U.S. Army Military History Institute but now (1992) located at the National Archives.

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Completion of the declassification of this volume and the final steps of its preparation for publication coincided with the development of procedures since early 1991 by the Central Intelligence Agency in cooperation with the Department of State that have expanded access by Department historians to high-level intelligence documents from among those records still in the custody of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Department of State chose not to postpone the publication of this volume to ascertain how such access might affect the scope of available documentation and the changes that might be made in the contents of this particular volume. The Department of State, however, is making good use of these new procedures, which have been arranged by the CIA’s History Staff, for the compilation of future volumes in the Foreign Relations series.

The declassification review process for this volume, which is outlined in more detail below, resulted in the withholding of about 9 percent of the material originally selected for inclusion in the volume. For the most part, material was withheld because of national security requirements or continuing sensitivity in U.S. relations with the nations of Central Europe. The amount of material originally withheld (16.8 percent) was reduced after the recent political changes in Germany and Eastern Europe created an opportunity for constructive re-review of the manuscript by declassification officers. The editors of the volume are confident that the documents dealing with Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany, Berlin, the German Democratic Republic, and Yugoslavia provide an accurate record of U.S. relations with those countries during the 1955–1957 period.

The editors wish to acknowledge the assistance of officials at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, in particular David Haight; the National Archives and Records Administration; the Department of Defense; and other specialized repositories who assisted in the collection of documents for this volume.

Editorial Methodology

The documents are presented chronologically according to Washington time. Incoming telegrams from U.S. missions are placed according to time of receipt in the Department of State or other receiving agency, rather than the time of transmission; memoranda of conversation are placed according to the time and date of the conversation, rather than the date the memorandum was drafted.

Editorial treatment of the documents published in Foreign Relations follows Office style guidelines, supplemented by guidance from the Editor in Chief and the chief technical editor. The source text is reproduced as exactly as possible, including marginalia or other notations, which are described in the footnotes. Obvious typographical errors are corrected, but other mistakes and omissions in the source [Page VII] text are corrected by bracketed insertions: a correction is set in italic type; an omission in roman type. Bracketed insertions are also used to indicate text that has been omitted because it deals with an unrelated subject (in roman type) or that remains classified after declassification review (in italic type). The amount of material not declassified has been noted by indicating the number of lines or pages of source text that were omitted. The amount of material omitted because it was unrelated, however, is not accounted for. All ellipses and brackets that appear in the source text are so identified by footnotes.

The first footnote to each document includes the document’s source, original classification, distribution, and drafting information. This source footnote also provides the background of important documents and policies and indicates whether the President or his principal policy advisers read it. Every effort has been made to determine if a document has been published previously, and this information has been included in the source footnote.

Editorial notes and additional annotation summarize pertinent material not printed in this volume, point out the location of additional documentary sources, provide references to important related documents printed in other volumes, describe key events, and summarize and give citations to public statements that supplement and elucidate the printed documents. Information derived from memoirs and other first-hand accounts has been used when necessary to supplement or explicate the official record.

Declassification Review

Declassification review of the documents selected for publication was conducted by the Historical Documents Review Division, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Department of State. The review was conducted in accordance with the standards set forth in Executive Order 12356 on National Security Information and applicable laws.

Under Executive Order 12356, information that concerns one or more of the following categories, and whose disclosure reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security, requires classification:

1)

military plans, weapons, or operations;

2)

the vulnerabilities or capabilities of systems, installations, projects, or plans relating to the national security;

3)

foreign government information;

4)

intelligence activities (including special activities), or intelligence sources and methods;

5)

foreign relations or foreign activities of the United States;

6)

scientific, technological, or economic: matters relating to national security;

7)

U.S. Government programs for safeguarding nuclear materials or facilities;

8)

cryptology; or

9)

a confidential source.

The principle guiding declassification review is to release as much information as is consistent with contemporary requirements of national security and sound foreign relations. Declassification decisions entailed concurrence of the appropriate geographic and functional bureaus in the Department of State, other concerned agencies of the U.S. Government, and appropriate foreign governments regarding the documents of those governments.

Acknowledgements

Under the supervision of former Editor in Chief John P. Glennon, Roberta L. DiGangi compiled the documents on Austria; Aaron Miller, the documents on the Federal Republic of Germany; Charles S. Sampson, the documents on Berlin and the German Democratic Republic; and Lorraine Lees, the documents on Yugoslavia. General Editor Glenn W. LaFantasie supervised the final steps in the editorial and publication process. Jeffrey A. Soukup prepared the lists of sources, abbreviations, and names. Rita M. Baker and Althea W. Robinson did the technical editing. Barbara A. Bacon of the Publishing Services Division (Natalie H. Lee, Chief) oversaw production of the volume. Thomas J. Hoffman prepared the index.