Preparations for the Summit Conference 395



154. Telegram From the Delegation at the Summit Conference to
      the Department of State

                                             Paris, May 13, 1960, p.m.

    Secto 4. At meeting today of Four-Power Working Group on Ger-
many Including Berlin 1 Laloy distributed text of French translation new
Soviet proposal on Berlin handed to French by Soviet Ambassador Paris
May 9 at same time as Khrushchev letter to de Gaulle.2 Proposal has ob-
vious relationship both to Soviet proposal of July 28, 1959,3 and to Smir-
nov memorandum given to SPD leader Ollenhauer January 13, 1960.4
Laloy said he assumed proposal is follow-up to de Gaulle-Khrushchev
March conversations on Berlin and stressed desirability of preventing
any leaks of its existence or contents to press.
    USDel translation from French follows:

    Begin text.
    Proposals of Soviet Government.
    The Soviet Government favors proceeding immediately to the sig-
nature of a peace treaty with the two German states. However, since
such a solution of the problem raises objection on the part of the Western
Powers, the Soviet Government, which as always strives to achieve con-
certed action on the German question among the four principal mem-
bers of the anti-Hitler coalition, is prepared meanwhile to agree to an
interim solution. This interim solution would consist of the signature of
a temporary (provisoire) agreement on West Berlin, suited to prepare
conditions for the ultimate transformation of West Berlin into a free city
and the adoption of measures leading to the preparation of the future
peace settlement. In this connection the Soviet Government proposes
the following:


    Source: Department of State, Central Files, 396.1-PA/5-1360. Secret;
Limit Distribu-
tion. Repeated to Bonn, London, Moscow, and Berlin.
    1 The meeting took place at 3 p.m. at the Quai d'Orsay. Laloy, Kohler,
Rumbold, and
Carstens headed the four delegations. A memorandum of the conversation at
the meeting
(US/MC/3) is ibid., Conference Files: Lot 64 D 559, CF 1664.
    2 On May 8, Khrushchev sent letters to Macmillan and de Gaulle, which
were deliv-
ered on the following day, suggesting that the United States was not interested
in the suc-
cess of the summit conference. A copy of the letter to Macmillan, which according
to Her-
ter was the same in substance as that to de Gaulle, was transmitted to the
President as an
enclosure to a May 15 memorandum from Herter. (Eisenhower Library, Whitman
File,
Dulles-Herter Series) For an extract from the letter and Macmillan's reply
on May 10, see
Macmillan, Pointing the Way, pp. 198-200. No copy of the letter to de Gaulle
or any reply he
might have made has been found.
    3See vol. VIII, Document 489.
    4 For text of this memorandum, see Dokumente, Band 4, 1960, Erster Halbband,
pp.
69-75.