Office of the Historian

247. Message From the Ambassador to Germany (Rush) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger)1

Bonn, June 4, 1971.
1.
Our meeting with Falin today was cut short by the fact that Bahr had to attend a meeting of the coalition leaders which Brandt had called for the purpose of explaining the current status of the Berlin negotiations. We therefore met from 2:15 to 4:15. No definitive results were reached but we had a useful discussion in many ways.
2.
Falin had brought back with him from Russia a redraft of a complete agreement2 embodying some of the points contained in the draft being used by the Ambassadors and their advisors in the Four Power talks but which did contain quite a few changes from this. We pressed him hard to go back to the draft form that had come out of the Four Power talks and on which some progress has been made. We were not completely successful in this but will take a strong position on it again tomorrow.
3.

Much of today’s session was devoted to Falin’s attempt to weaken the provisions on special ties between the Western sectors and the FRG. He proposed substituting “regulations” for “special ties,” and stating “that these sectors still do not belong to or are included in the FRG nor can be governed by it,” for our language to the effect that the Western sectors are not to be considered a Land of the FRG and are not governed by it.

Bahr has been discussing the entire agreement with Brandt. They are willing to drop the word “special” before “ties” and are willing to accept language that “the ties between the Western sectors and the FRG will be maintained and developed, taking into account that these sectors continue not to be a part of the sovereign territory of the FRG and are not governed by it.”

4.

I have to go to Berlin on Sunday morning for the talks preceding the Four Powers talks on Monday and will be returning to the States next Wednesday. Our discussion with Falin tomorrow is a dinner meeting that will carry through the evening, so I may not have an opportunity [Page 726] to send you a message prior to my return to the States. If anything of consequence develops, however, I will let you know or will have Bahr let you know.

As ever.

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 59, Country Files, Europe, Ambassador Rush, Berlin, Vol. 1. Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only. A copy was sent to Haig. The message was sent through the special Navy channel in Frankfurt; no time of transmission or receipt appears on the message.↩
  2. No copy of the Soviet “redraft” has been found.↩