244 Foreign Relations, 1958-1960, Volume IX



    After noting that the 1957 proposals also envisaged certain meas-
ures of ground inspection, von Brentano observed that such a proposal
would set up a dangerous reaction if the area in question turned out to
be nearly identical with the Federal Republic. The Soviets would reenter
as inspectors. The West should do nothing to encourage neutralization
sentiments in the Federal Republic. Any measure which discriminates
against any member of the Alliance must also be avoided. These consid-
erations were basic to the reaction of the Chancellor yesterday evening.3
If the Four-Power Working Group wants to consider such a proposal
and discuss the pros and cons, this, of course, could be done, but he
wanted the Secretary to know the reasons why the Federal Government
would not accept such a proposal and would insist on extending the
area involved. To speak very frankly, von Brentano added, we all know
that thoughts of this kind and some going even farther are entertained in
certain British circles. Such thoughts would find further nourishment in
this proposal. He was not speaking of his good friend Selwyn Lloyd, but
of certain other British leaders. The Federal Government considered it
as highly dangerous to seek to ease tensions through such measures
which would lead not to relaxation but rather to heightened tension.
    The Secretary commented that relief of tension was not the most
important aspect. Our objectives related to surprise attack and the de-
fense of Europe. We had no fixed ideas as to the area to be involved and
certainly no discrimination against the Federal Republic was intended.
We would like to find out how, from the viewpoint of military judg-
ment, such a proposal would benefit the West. The best man to provide
such a judgment would be General Norstad. Von Brentano agreed that it
would be a good thing to get his views, since no one else's views could
be more pertinent. The Secretary repeated that we would like to get
from General Norstad a military appraisal of the value of such a zone.
Von Brentano said that, if such an appraisal were obtained, the military
authorities of the Federal Republic would have a basis on which to pro-
vide their own comments. The Secretary noted that Norstad would pre-
sumably consult fully with them.
    Von Brentano observed that the danger is that should the fact of
such discussions become public the result would inevitably be danger-
ous speculation. Unfortunately, it is difficult to avoid leaks in democra-
cies. In his own experience if he had a very secret paper and left it lying
open unmarked on his desk no one would be interested. However, if a
paper were marked Secret it was bound to leak out. It would be very
bad, he reiterated, if it leaked out that such a proposal were being



3See Document 94.