134. Editorial Note
On August 30, 1961, Thomas K. Finletter, U.S. Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in response to a request by the President, wrote him a lengthy letter on the attitude of the NATO Allies on the desirability and form of negotiations with the Soviet Union on the Berlin question. After prefacing his remarks by saying the Alliance military response had been inadequate and the first reaction to the U.S. proposals on economic countermeasures had been bad, Finletter stated that there was a universal view (except for the French) that the U.S. military buildup had not been accompanied by sufficient emphasis on the political aspects of the question. Finletter went on to describe some proposals within the Alliance on what to expect from the Soviet Union, how the West might anticipate these moves, and what might be done in the event the Soviet Union signed a peace treaty with the German Democratic Republic. For text of this letter, see Declassified Documents, 1986, 1868.