Federal Republic of Germany 687



260. Memorandum of Conversation

                                Washington, June 20, 1960, 3:15 p.m.

SUBJECT
    Meeting with German Defense Minister Strauss
PARTICIPANTS
    Defense Minister Strauss          Under Secretary Merchant
    Ambassador Grewe                  Assistant Secretary Kohler
    Minister Krapf                    Assistant Secretary Irwin, Defense
    Col. Repenning                    Mr. Smith, S/P
                                      Mr. Hillenbrand, GER
                                      Mr. Courtney, S/AE
                                      Mr. Fessenden, RA
                                      Mr. Long-M
                                      Mr. Devine, GER

    In opening the meeting at 3:15, Mr. Merchant said it might be useful
to resume briefly the discussion that had taken place in the Secretary's
office.I He said that in reviewing the Berlin Contingency Plans, it
seemed that it would be worthwhile to study one or two areas that had
been neglected in the previous discussions of this subject. It seemed that
the military plans were in relatively good shape. However, many per-
sons, including the President, felt that the problem of civilian access to
Berlin in time of a blockade or harassment by the Soviet forces was
something to which sufficient attention had not been paid. It also
seemed desirable that we examine more intensively the possibility of
economic countermeasures in our further studies. Mr. Merchant said
that he felt that the Working Group which would gather shortly in Bonn
could very appropriately examine this subject. In bringing this matter
up, Mr. Merchant said that he would like to make it clear that the United
States Government did not believe that Berlin would become the scene
of a crisis in the near future, although this cannot be counted on.
    Minister Strauss then commented that as long as communism re-
mains what it is and has the mission of world domination which it
proudly claims, it is dangerous for the rest of the world to relax its ef-
forts.
    Mr. Kohler said that one of our great problems was to give credibil-
ity to the positions we take and the statements which we publish. He
said that there was now some feeling on our side that we had achieved a
good deal of credibility, at least as far as Khrushchev was concerned, in


    Source: Department of State, Central Files, 762.0221/6-2060. Secret.
Drafted by
Devine, initialed by Kohler, and approved in M on June 30.
    1See Document 259.