Office of the Historian

117. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, June 4, 1965, 12:30 p.m.

SUBJECT

  • President’s Summary of Conversation

PARTICIPANTS

  • US
    • The President
    • Harry Obst—Interpreter
  • German
    • Chancellor Erhard
    • Hermann Kusterer—Interpreter

The President concluded the discussion with the following summary:

1.
He understood Erhard’s problems with General de Gaulle. He believed Erhard was handling them right. They would continue to work together on this problem, and he would support the Chancellor as much as he could.
2.
The NATO Alliance must be preserved. The American commitments were extremely solid and he would stand by them. NATO would continue with or without France.
3.
The Chancellor should bring forward any ideas, suggestions and possible approaches on the question of reunification of Germany. The President assured the Chancellor these ideas would be warmly received and studied with care.
4.
The President and the Chancellor should keep in touch on the Great Society and the Formed Society. They should continue their work in that direction.
5.
The President appreciated the interest of the Chancellor in development programs for Asia. This subject should also be brought up at the United Nations.
6.
The President assured the Chancellor he would do the best he could to solve the conflicts in Viet-Nam and in the Dominican Republic. He appreciated the Chancellor’s sympathetic attitude toward these problems. The Chancellor could be assured that, if it came to defending Berlin, the US would also do the best it could and stand firmly by its commitment.
7.
The President apologized for being unable to give the Chancellor more time for talks during this visit. This was partly due to the cancellation of the Shastri visit. The President hoped they would be able to continue their conversation at another date.

  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Germany, vol. 8. Secret. Drafted by Kent and approved in the White House on June 10. The meeting was held in the President’s office. The source text is marked “Part Nine of Nine.” A memorandum of conversation of the portion of the talks dealing with NATO is printed in Foreign Relations, 1964–1968, vol. XIII, Document 88.↩