169. Editorial Note
In a March 9, 1962, memorandum to Secretary of State Rusk, President Kennedy provided instructions for Ruskʼs upcoming meetings with Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko in Geneva. “With particular regard to Berlin,” the President stated, “you should attempt to develop in your discussions with Gromyko the draft proposal of a modus vivendi which has my approval.” The draft modus vivendi to which the President referred called for agreement by the Soviets to the general principle that “West Berlin should be free to choose its own way of life, that its viability should be maintained, and that its access should remain free and unhindered.” It also called for further negotiations at the level of deputy foreign minister and maintenance, for the time being, of current access procedures. For text of the Presidentʼs memorandum and the draft modus vivendi, see Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, volume XV, pages 1–6. Rusk met with Gromyko while in Geneva March 10-27 for the meeting of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament, March 14-June 14.
In a March 10 letter to President Kennedy responding to Kennedyʼs letter of February 15 (see Document 155), Chairman Khrushchev stated that the Soviet Government was “prepared to meet halfway the desire expressed by you and to agree to the creation of a special international organ on the access to West Berlin.” Khrushchev continued, “The organ that I have in mind would act as an arbiter if difficulties appeared during the practical implementation of the agreements on free access to and from West Berlin. It would not be empowered with any administrative functions which would give it authority to directly regulate traffic or set its own regulations on the traffic routes connecting West Berlin with the outside world because this is a prerogative of the German Democratic Republic.” Khrushchev indicated that Soviet agreement on creation of such an organ would come only in the context of an agreement to demilitarize Berlin and on “final legalization and consolidation of the existing German borders and also on other questions which are well known to you and which you mention in your message.” Khrushchev added that “symbolic contingents” of UN or neutral country troops could be stationed in West Berlin for 3-5 years. In telegram CAP 5114-52 to Secretary of State Rusk, March 11, the President commented that Khrushchevʼs “proposal of an international organ on access, though at present attached to a quite unacceptable condition, does offer a real chance of progress.” For text of Khrushchevʼs letter and Kennedyʼs telegram, see Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, volume XV, pages 7–16.
On March 12 Rusk, meeting with Gromyko in Geneva, raised for the first time with a Soviet representative the idea of an agreement on general principles along the lines suggested in the draft modus vivendi. According to the memorandum of conversation, Gromyko noted that the [Page 392] proposal was “something new, at least in form,” and “he did not exclude the possibility of first reaching agreement on a set of general principles, then gradually developing those principles, and ultimately reaching agreement on a detailed basis.” For text, see ibid., pages 26–33.