Status of Berlin, August-December 1959 103



39. Memorandum of Conversation

                         Washington, November 10, 1959, 11:30 a.m.

SUBJECT
    Foreign Minister von Brentano's Letter to the Secretary and Preparations
for a
      Summit Meeting
PARTICIPANTS
    Wilhelm G. Grewe, German Ambassador
    The Secretary
    Martin J. Hillenbrand-GER
    In a conversation which also covered the subject of vested German
assets (see separate memorandum),' Ambassador Grewe began by
apologizing for the delay in the delivery of the letter dated October 23,
1959,2 to the Secretary from Foreign Minister von Brentano. The delay
was caused, according to Ambassador Grewe, by the peculiar way in
which the letter had been sent to the German Embassy here. Since the
letter had been written, Dr. Grewe continued, the German view had
changed a little regarding a possible agenda for an East-West Summit.
The Federal Government did not believe that disarmament should be
the only item discussed at such a Summit; it would obviously also be
necessary to deal with the Berlin and German question.
    The Secretary commented that the Summit agenda was one of the
things we had wanted to talk about in the preparatory Four Power dis-
cussions. This was a complicated question. The subject of disarmament,
for example, was a tremendous one. We have received various propos-
als on the subject, and the Coolidge Group3 is making a thorough study
of our position. We did not know yet when an East-West Summit meet-
ing could take place. President de Gaulle would presumably want it to
come only after the Khrushchev visit to France. Another question was
the relationship of the Ten-Power Disarmament talks to an East-West
Summit. If these talks started before the Summit, it would not be very
long before guidance would be required from the Heads of Govern-
ments. Therefore, we tended to prefer having the East-West Summit be-
fore the Ten-Power talks began.


    Source: Department of State, Central Files, 396.1-PA/11-1059. Secret;
Limit Distri-
bution. Drafted by Hillenbrand and approved in S on November 18. A 2-page
briefing pa-
per, drafted by Hillenbrand and initialed by Herter, November 9, is ibid.,
Secretary's
Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 64 D 199.
    Not printed. (Ibid.)
    2Document 34.
    3Reference is to a committee headed by Charles A. Coolidge to review
U.S. disarma-
ment policy.