662.001/9–1052: Telegram
No. 135
The Secretary of
State to the Embassy in the United
Kingdom1
secret
niact
priority
Washington, September 10, 1952—11:57
a.m.
1718. Fol is text of Dept’s redraft of note on Ger, as explained in preceding
tel:2
- “1. The US Govt has carefully considered the Sov
Govt’s note of Aug 23 about Ger.3 It had
hoped that the note wld have marked some progress
towards agreement on the essential question of free
all-Ger elections. This is the first question which must
be settled among the four powers so that Ger can be unified, an
all-Ger Govt formed and a peace treaty concluded.
- “2. Possibly in order to divert attention from this
issue, the greater part of the Sov note of Aug 23 is,
however, devoted to wholly unfounded attacks upon the
Atlantic Pact, the Eur Defense Community and the
Conventions signed at Bonn on May 27 [26]. These arbitrary and unilateral assertions
of the Sov Govt are naturally unacceptable as a basis of
four-power discussions about Ger.
- “3. The US Govt must insist on the necessity of
starting such four-power discussions at the only point
from which they can logically start, which is the
organization of free elections. In its note of July
10,4 the US Govt called
attention to the obvious fact that this is the first
point which must be settled if any progress is to be
made towards sealing the breach now steadily being
widened between the Sov Zone of Ger and the greater part of the country
which is under the jurisdiction of the FedRep. In its latest
note as in its first note,5 the
Sovt Govt, on the other hand, continues to relegate to
the background the problem of elections, including the
simple and practical question of agreeing on a Com to
see whether free elections can actually be held in all
of Ger. Until this is
done and suitable conditions exist, elections cannot be
held. Until elections are held, no all-Ger Govt can be
formed, nor can the country be unified. And until an
all-Ger Govt is formed and given a suitable status of
freedom, it is useless to discuss the terms of a Ger peace treaty.
- “4. The US Govt is compelled to remind the Sov Govt
that conditions have altered radically since the four
powers agreed at Potsdam in 1945 on certain political
and economic principles to govern the initial control
period. The idea of a peace treaty drafted by the four
powers and imposed by dictate upon Ger is entirely unsuitable
in 1952. Until free elections are held which include the
Sov Zone, there will be no Ger authority properly qualified to speak
for the population of the Sov Zone on such matters as a
peace treaty. The Sov Govt has suggested that East
Ger representatives
as well as representatives of the Ger
FedRep shld take part
in the four-power mtg ‘for the examinations of
appropriate questions’. The US Govt must at once state
that such a proposal is not a substitute for the
participation of an all-Ger Govt in the
discussions.
- “5. The US Govt insists that genuinely free elections
with view to the formation of an all-Ger Govt must come
first. Over the past seven years there has been
agreement between the three Western Govts and the Sov
Govt that a united Ger
shld be ‘peaceloving, democratic and independent’. The
US Govt has learned by hard experience in recent years
that these terms have one meaning in common parlance and
another in the official Sov vocabulary. Sov official
pronouncements appear to reserve the word ‘democratic’
exclusively for those societies in which the Communists
have a monopoly of political power. Similarly, the term
‘peaceloving’ is applied only to Soviet Communist
policies and those who fol them, while anything which
implies resistance to such policies is labelled as
warlike and aggressive. The words ‘free’ and
‘independent’ are used to describe states with the
outward trappings of sovereignty but actually in a
condition of subjection to the Sov Union. The different
interpretation of these terms is illustrated by the
contrasting results of their application in Eastern and
Western Ger. In the Sov
Zone, and indeed in the neighboring ‘popular
democracies’ of Eastern Eur, ‘freedom’ means forced
labor, deportation, arbitrary imprisonment without
trial, and all the other manifestations of the police
state. In these territories ‘free elections’ have
hitherto meant ‘freedom’ for the electorate to cast 98
percent or 99 percent vote in favor of an official
single list. The contrast between these concepts and
those which obtain in Western Ger is perfectly clear. It is for the
Ger people to choose
between these alternative ways of life. But they must be
able to make their choice in genuine freedom and full
responsibility. Only genuinely free elections can
reflect the will of the Ger people and permit the formation of an
all-Ger Govt with the necessary freedom of action to
discuss and to accept a peace settlement.
- “6. Under all these circumstances, the US Govt cannot
feel that any progress has been made in the six notes
which have previously
[Page 321]
been exchanged. It is anxious,
however, to avail itself of any opportunity, however
slight, to find a way of ending the division of Ger, now so arbitrarily
maintained. This division exists as a festering sore in
Eur. It will not be healed by discussions about a
hypothetical peace treaty with a country yet lacking all
semblance of a unified Govt. It will only be healed by
energetically tackling the problem of unifying the
country through free elections.
- “7. The US Govt therefore renews the proposal made in
its note of July 10 for a four-power mtg—which could
take place in Oct—to discuss the formation and functions
of an impartial Comm of investigation as an aid to the
creation of the conditions necessary for free elections.
The next step wld be to discuss the arrangements for the
holding of these elections and for the formation of an
all-Ger Govt, as proposed in para 11(4) of the US Govt’s
note of May 13.6 When
free elections have been held and a govt formed, the
peace settlement can be negotiated. The US Govt most
earnestly urges the Sov Govt to reconsider its refusal
to join the other powers in a single-minded effort thus
to come to grips with the problem of holding free
elections in Ger.”
