73. Editorial Note
Despite Secretary of State Rusk’s personal appeal to the NATO Allies for a quick discussion of the draft replies to the June 4, 1961, Soviet aide-mémoire, the North Atlantic Council was unable to consider them until July 12, and the United States therefore, agreed to delay delivery of the notes. Following NAC discussion (summarized in Polto 48 from Paris, July 12; Department of State, Central Files, 762.00/7-1261), the United States, France, and the United Kingdom resolved some remaining textual differences and delivered their notes on July 17. For text of the French note, see La Documentation Francaise: Articles et Documents, July 25, 1961; for text of the British note, see Selected Documents on Germany and the Question of Berlin, 1944-1961, Cmd. 1552, London, 1961, pages 448 ff.; for text of the U.S. note, see Documents on Germany, 1944-1985, pages 753-760.
Five days earlier, on July 12, the German Embassy in Moscow had delivered the Federal Republic’s reply to the February 17 Soviet aide-mémoire. For the text in English, see ibid., pages 750-753. For the German text and German texts of all the documents mentioned above, see Dokumente zur Deutschlandpolitik, Band 6, Zweiter Halbband, pages 1277-1230, 1248-1260, and 1262-1264. On July 18 the four Western Ambassadors in Moscow met to compare notes on Gromyko’s response at the time of the delivery of the replies. In each case Gromyko ended the conversation by saying that it was up to the West whether the Berlin problem was exacerbated or settled by agreement, and all four Ambassadors agreed that in the absence of some settlement, Khrushchev [Page 213] would conclude a separate treaty. (Telegram 179 from Moscow, July 18; Department of State, Central Files, 762.00/7-1861)
On July 19 President Kennedy, at the beginning of his press conference, read parts of the statement which had been agreed on July 4 (see footnote 3, Document 55), and released the full text. For a transcript of the press conference and text of the statement, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961, pages 513-523. The statement is also printed in Documents on Germany, 1944-1985, pages 760-762.