Konrad Adenauer — West Berlin — NATO And The Cold War — 1961 -…
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Konrad Adenauer — Meet The Press — NBC Radio — April 1961 — Gordon Skene Sound Collection -
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Konrad Adenauer, the Chancellor of West Germany was, at 85, was leading West Germany since 1949 and was the chief architect in post-War German recovery and renewed participation in World affairs. In 1961 he was seeking re-election. Staunchly anti-communist, Adenauer paid a State Visit to Washington to solidify the NATO agreement on West Berlin and to issue a joint-communiqué with President Kennedy over America’s role in the Germany question. Adenauer felt the U.S., with its substantial presence in Germany, should take over the lead in NATO discussions and policy towards West Germany and West Berlin in particular. Also discussed was the issue of tactical nuclear weapons, which were in Europe.
In 1961, Adenauer had his concerns about both the status of Berlin and US leadership confirmed, as the Soviets and East Germans built the Berlin Wall. Adenauer had come into the year distrusting the new US President, John F. Kennedy. He doubted Kennedy’s commitment to a free Berlin and a unified Germany and considered him undisciplined and naïve. For his part, Kennedy thought that Adenauer was a relic of the past. Their strained relationship impeded effective Western action on Berlin during 1961.
In the president’s briefing book for the meeting lay a prepared public statement stemming from the Eisenhower administration. It was the public statement to be made “if and when the Soviet Government announces the imminent turning over of the checkpoints to the ‘German Democratic Republic.’ “ Dated July 22, 1960, it was in the president’s briefing book as background information, maybe even to be discussed with Adenauer, thus showing that the State Department still recommended it. It contained the actions the Western powers would announce in this contingency, declaring that the legal basis of West Berlin and Western rights had not changed, that GDR personnel would be not accepted as Soviet agents, but that Western vehicles would bear “reasonable identification” by which
they could be “readily identified” by East German authorities. It was, in other words, a legally acceptable version of the “agency”
concept, termed “imputed agency,” and had been John Foster Dulles’ favorite. GDR guards would not be recognized as “agents” of the Soviet Union but would in fact be treated as such. Adenauer’s statement that the “agency” interpretation had been firmly rejected was therefore an undue simplification at best. Rusk’s remark that the law went in the direction in which it was pointed could
therefore have been a veiled warning not to hide in legalisms; after all, “imputed agency” was no more than a legal compliance with Adenauer’s position. After the talks, Adenauer was mainly irritated by the Berlin contingency plans.
The inner-workings and diplomatic wrangling aside, this Meet The Press interview focuses on the more upbeat aspects of the meeting, even though it is evident with answers to some questions, that Adenauer was not thrilled with the way the meetings were going.
Here is that Meet The Press episode from April 16, 1961.
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Originally published at https://pastdaily.com on June 10, 2019.
