55. Memorandum From the Assistant to the President’s Military Representative (Legere) to the President’s Military Representative (Taylor)0
SUBJECT
- Berlin Meeting with President at 1630 Hours, 21 May1
1. I now have a little information on yesterday’s meeting which was supposed to have addressed the alternative “next steps on Berlin” which appear in the attached paper.2 I understand from Mr. Klein and from other sources that the meeting was more or less of a complete fiasco. The President had his mind on something else and apparently had not read the paper very carefully. In the second place, the Secretary of State unfortunately had not done his homework either. This left Mr. Bohlen who, as one of my informers said, seems to have a capacity for saying the right thing at the wrong time. In short, the meeting appears to have accomplished nothing whatever.
- Source: National Defense University, Taylor Papers, Box 38, Negotiations. Secret.↩
- Other than this account and references in Rusk’s Appointment Book and the President’s Appointment Book, no record of this meeting, which was attended by Bundy, Kohler, Hillenbrand, Bohlen, Rusk, and the President, has been found.↩
- Attachment to Document 54.↩