Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Berlin Crisis, 1958–1959, Volume VIII
Overview
This volume presents the record of U.S. policy during the first part of the Berlin crisis through the end of the Geneva Foreign Ministers Meeting in August 1959. Selected documents focus on the formulation of policy on the “German problem” by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his top advisers.
During the years 1958–1959, the White House and the Department of State worked together closely in the formulation of U.S. policy toward Berlin. Secretaries of State John Foster Dulles and Christian A. Herter advised President Eisenhower and took part in the deliberations of the National Security Council, while the White House and National Security Council directed the preparation of contingency papers on Berlin that included input from other executive agencies. The Department of State prepared and coordinated exchanges of views and discussions of policy toward Berlin with the French, German, and British Governments and participated in meetings between President Eisenhower and the leaders of these states.
Documentation includes the most significant U.S. diplomatic exchanges with the Soviet Union regarding the status of Berlin; memoranda of conversations among the President, the Secretary of State, and other top officials; memoranda of discussion, policy papers, and other institutional records of the National Security Council; White House documents; informal policy materials; major foreign policy recommendations by the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and internal U.S. Government policy recommendations and decision papers relating to Germany and the question of Berlin. The volume includes memoranda of conversation and notes of meetings between the President and his principal foreign policy advisers and between them and their counterparts in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Telegrams document the important policy recommendations of U.S. representatives at the Missions in London, Bonn, Paris, Berlin, and Moscow; and the records of the several quadripartite working groups that prepared reports on Berlin. The volume also contains records on U.S. military planning and dispositions in Germany.