306 Foreign Relations, 1958-1960, Volume IX



    M. Herve Alphand, French Ambassador
    Mr. Foy D. Kohler, EUR
    Mr. Robert H. McBride, WE
    After a brief reference to the instability of the political situation
in
Italy, M. Couve de Murville proceeded to discuss with the Secretary the
Khrushchev visit to France along the lines he had previously briefed
Ambassador Houghton.1 He stressed there were no results to the de
Gaulle-Khrushchev discussions and concluded these represented a fur-
ther part of the classical East-West dialogue. Disarmament, Germany
and Berlin, aid to underdeveloped countries, possible embargoes on
arms deliveries, and the African situation had been the subjects of dis-
cussion. He said Khrushchev had mentioned two years as the period for
an interim Berlin settlement, and this of course posed the issue of where
we would be after two years if we accepted an interim arrangement.
Couve opined that it would be satisfactory provided our rights re-
mained untouched after the termination of an interim settlement. In any
event he did not believe we should go beyond the Geneva proposals of
July 28, 1959.2 The Secretary and Couve agreed that the Soviets would
open the Summit Conference by presenting again their German peace
treaty proposal, and repeat their belief that the German question was
one to be settled by the two Germanies. They agreed that thereupon the
Soviets would indicate that, failing all else, they would reluctantly be
obliged to sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany.
    The Secretary asked if during the de Gaulle-Khrushchev talks, the
question of Germany's eastern frontiers had been mentioned. Couve re-
plied in the affirmative and said that de Gaulle had repeated his previ-
ously publicized view that the present eastern frontier of Germany
should remain fixed at the Order-Neisse. He said that in the context of a
statement that all German boundaries should remain unchanged. He
specifically referred to his opposition to Anschluss with Austria or
changing the German-Czech frontier.
    Couve discussed briefly his negotiations with Gromyko over the
communique. 3 He made three points, first that Gromyko had added lan-
guage to the French draft stressing that disarmament was the number
one problem in the world. He said the French gladly accepted this sug-
gestion. However, he had been less keen on the Soviet references to the
peace treaty which had been added as well as language regarding a
European security system.


    1See Documents 106 and 108.
    2See vol. VIII, Document 488.
    3For text of the joint Franco-Soviet communique, April 3, see American
Foreign Policy:
Current Documents, 1960, pp. 396-398, or Embree, Soviet Union and the German
Question, pp.
141-143.