279. Letter From Acting Secretary of State Ball to Secretary of Commerce Hodges1
Dear Mr. Secretary: One of the measures actively under consideration in the North Atlantic Council in the context of the Berlin crisis is the U.S. proposal for a NATO-wide boycott of the Leipzig Fair in East Germany, to be held March 4-13, 1962. The Berlin Task Force, on which your Department is represented, has closely followed developments in the Council on this measure.
The Federal Republic of Germany—heretofore the principal western exhibitor—has already adopted an effective policy of informal discouragement and dissuasion of West German firms from participation in the Fair. Accordingly, it appears that the steel and chemical industries of West Germany, which have previously been represented in depth in Leipzig, will be virtually unrepresented in the spring event.
While it is understood that the United States Government cannot prohibit private participation in the Leipzig Fair, there is much that can be done to discourage U.S. businessmen and firms, including foreign subsidiaries, from exhibiting in the Fair. I would hope that in particular your Agency would undertake to contact those U.S. firms, either directly or through the Chamber of Commerce or appropriate trade associations, which have exhibited at the Leipzig Fair in the past or which you have reason to believe may wish to exhibit at the forthcoming Fair, and that they be discouraged from taking part.
The Foreign Commerce Weekly would presumably be an effective instrument for making known generally the U.S. policy in regard to participation in the Leipzig Fair.
I am sure I can count on your cooperation in this endeavor.
Sincerely yours,