Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Germany and Austria, Volume VII, Part 1

396.1 BE/1–1454

No. 336
The Secretary of State to Foreign Minister Bidault¹

confidential
niact

[Washington, January 14, 1954.]

Since sending you my comments last evening² on Mr. Eden’s alternative courses of action,³ I have received a report from the US Commandant in Berlin on yesterday’s meeting with Dengin.⁴ My own inclination is to accept the latest Soviet proposal which is that the first meeting be in the ACA building and the second in the Karlshorst, following which the question of location of subsequent meetings will be left for the Foreign Ministers to decide themselves. I am not unduly concerned about Dengin’s position that the chairmanship is one for the Foreign Ministers themselves to decide. In past meetings of the four Foreign Ministers the chair has always rotated, and I believe we should go into the meeting on this assumption and not give the Soviets the impression now that there is any question about rotation of the chair among the four.

While the foregoing represents my reaction to the Soviet proposal of yesterday, I recognize that there may be other factors which you or Mr. Eden may have in mind, and if you think we should take a stronger stand I will of course support it wholeheartedly.

I am sending a similar message to Mr. Eden.⁵

1. Transmitted to Paris in telegram 2500, Jan. 14 with the instruction that it be conveyed urgently to Bidault. Also sent to London, HICOG, Bonn, and HICOG Berlin.
2. The U.S. position as indicated in telegram 3616, Document 333.
3. For the British alternatives, see footnote 3, ibid.
4. For a record of this meeting, see telegram 853, supra.
5. In a subsequent exchange of views the three Western powers agreed to authorize their Commandants to proceed along the following lines in their next meeting with Dengin: allow Dengin to state his own views in the hope that he might have been authorized to accept the three to one ratio; failing this, propose the internationalization of the ACA enclave for holding all the meetings (Bidault’s proposal); if Dengin rejected that, propose a one to one ratio with the first meeting at the ACA building; if this in turn was rejected, then the Commandants would accept Dengin’s offer for the first meeting at the ACA building, the next meeting in the Soviet sector, and subsequent meetings settled by the Foreign Ministers. This proposal was transmitted to Berlin in telegram 474, Jan. 15. (396.1 BE/1–1554) Further documentation on the exchanges preliminary to arriving at this position is in file 396.1 BE/1–1454 and 1–1554.