this alliance it advocates, together with other allies, that all parties to it should share in the responsibility for nuclear defense. It does not, however, as it has repeatedly declared, seek national possession of nuclear weapons.

Its policy is aimed at increasing security in Europe and at creating a situation in which threats, pressures, ultimatums, and use of force, in any form, are impossible. Its aim is to eliminate the sources of political tension. It therefore advocates both a solution of the German problem and a consistent disarmament policy that will contribute towards safeguarding the peace.

The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, however, wants to do more than just make these general points. It therefore has the honour to submit to the United States Government the following ideas and suggestions regarding disarmament and the safeguarding of peace.

V

1. The Federal Government is aware of the dangers involved in a proliferation of nuclear weapons. If it proves too difficult to arrive at a comprehensive settlement of the non-proliferation problem,10 the Federal Government would consider a step by step approach advisable. There are obviously only two ways for a state to come into possession of nuclear weapons, i.e., either by producing these weapons itself or by obtaining them from a nuclear power. Both these possibilities should be eliminated.

As regards the first possibility, the Federal Republic of Germany, as has already been mentioned, renounced the production of nuclear weapons as early as 1954 and to that extent submitted to international control. In the light of this the Federal Government appeals to all non-nuclear states who are members of military alliances in East or West to express the same renunciation and submit to a similar international control. This should be followed by further steps concerning the non-aligned states.

To eliminate also the second possibility of spreading nuclear weapons, the Federal Government suggests that the nuclear powers come to an agreement not to transfer any nuclear weapons to the national control of other countries.

10 See post, docs. X-5 et seq.

2. Nobody will be able to claim that the nuclear armaments race increases security in Europe and throughout the world. The Federal Government therefore declares that it is prepared to consent to any agreement in which the countries concerned pledge themselves not to increase the number of nuclear weapons in Europe but to reduce them in stages. Such an agreement, however, would have to extend to the whole of Europe, preserve the overall balance of power, provide for effective control, and be linked with essential progress in the solution of political problems in Central Europe.

3. As a receiving country for fissionable material the Federal Republic of Germany has submitted to international controls which ensure that such material is not used for the production of nuclear weapons. As a supplying country the Federal Republic of Germany, in its supply agreements with receiving countries outside the EURATOM area, is prepared in general to demand similar controls by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Its attitude is based on the assumption that other supplying countries impose the same condition.

4. The Federal Republic of Germany and its Western allies have already exchanged declarations renouncing the use of force. As the governments of the Soviet Union and some other East European countries have repeatedly expressed their anxiety, unfounded as it is, over a possible German attack, the Federal Government proposes that formal declarations be exchanged also with the governments of the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia and any other East European state, in which either side gives an undertaking to the other people not to use force to settle international disputes.

VI

The Federal Government considers that these suggestions and proposals stand the best chance, at the present stage, of being carried into effect. It realizes, however, that more farreaching proposals are required if the world is to be given security in every respect and if it is to be guarded against the risk of nuclear war. It is prepared to co-operate also in such more comprehensive plans; it believes, however, that all efforts to achieve security, disarmament and armaments control will fail to bring decisive and lasting success unless there is a simultaneous step-by-step removal of the causes of tension in the world. Looking at Europe, that means, above all, solving the German problem in an = equitable manner by granting to the : entire German nation the right freely to determine its political way of life and its destiny.

Document IV-48

Note Delivered by the American Embassy in Bonn to the West German Foreign Office, April 2, 1966 11

United States Views on German Reunification and European Security

The Government of the United States acknowledges receipt of the note of the Federal Republic of Germany of March 25 concerning the reunification of Germany, disarmament, and other matters relating to the peace and security of Europe." The United States Government welcomes the German note as a forward-looking communication containing many constructive suggestions.

The United States Government notes with satisfaction the reaffirmation expressed in the note of the desire of the Federal Republic of Germany to live on good terms with all of Germany's neighbors, including the nations of Eastern Europe, and it hopes that further progress will be made toward this goal. It is the earnest hope of the Government of the United States that all nations interested in the peace and security of the world

11 Department of State Bulletin, Apr. 25, 1966, p. 654.

12 Supra.

will carefully study the March 25 note and that they will find, as the Government of the United States has found, that the note gives positive expression to the desire of the German people to live in peace and freedom and to their willingness to make sacrifices to achieve German reunification. The United States Government supports the efforts of the German Government outlined in the note intended to contribute to European peace and security, disarmament, and the related goal of the improvement of relations between Germany and all of the nations of Central and Eastern Europe. These efforts are complementary to those of other governments which are also concerned with these problems.

The Government of the United States wishes to assure the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany that it will give most careful consideration to the ideas and suggestions in the German note regarding disarmament and the safeguarding of the peace. The United States shares with the German Government and other governments whose goal is a more peaceful and secure world, the hope that the day may soon arrive when Germany will be reunified in a peaceful and equitable manner which will assure to the German people the right freely to determine their own way of life and destiny and will permit a united Germany to contribute fully to a peaceful and stable international community.

Document IV-49

Note From the Soviet Government to the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, May 17, 1966 13

13

Soviet Views on German Reunification and European Security

The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, in connection with the note of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany of 25 March 1966, has the honor to state the following:

14

warded to many countries of the world says that, concerned about further developments, it resolved to consistently set down "its peaceful policy and make a number of proposals on problems of disarmament, control over armaments, and European security." The Soviet Government examined this note with all the attention the aforesaid questions deserve. It regarded this as all the more necessary because the Federal Republic of Germany seeks to present this note as evidence of a change in the foreign policy of the Federal German Government towards "greater realism."

The note speaks of the government's desire for peace and to live in good relations with all neighbors. The Federal Government declares that it does not carry out a revenge-seeking or restoration policy, that it is looking ahead and not back.

Statements of this kind, of course, are of interest. However, the question arises: Do these statements by the Federal Government mean the renunciation of its policy which is incompatible with the interests of European peace and security?

2-The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany cannot deny that throughout all the years of existence of the Federal Republic not a single threat to its security has arisen. The acute international conflicts taking place from time to time flared up far away from the Federal Republic of Germany and did not affect its vital interests. It is well known that not a single European state has territorial claims against the Federal Republic of Germany or encroaches on its socioeconomic system.

Nevertheless, the Federal Government openly placed in the center of its activity militarization of the country and the building up of a big military machine. Sacrificing the interests of national unity, it made sure of West Germany's inclusion in the aggressive military NATO organization. Violating the obligations for the Federal Republic of Germany flowing from the Potsdam agreement, it formed a 500,000-strong army (Bundeswehr) which is being adapted for nuclear missile warfare.

It closely connected its policy with the policy of a non-European state,

15 See 1945 For. Rel., The Conference of Berlin, vol. II, pp. 1481, 1502.

the United States of America, for which the interests of Europe are remote and which is interested in maintaining tension with the object of insuring the longest possible presence of American troops on the European continent.

The Federal Republic of Germany ranks second after the United States among NATO countries in the level of military spending. High-ranking statesmen in the Federal Republic of Germany openly urge Bundeswehr soldiers to get ready to fire at Germans, wage a fratricidal war against the GDR, and gather strength for a revision of the results of World War II.

Hundreds of frankly Nazi militarist and revanchist unions, organizations, and associations are active in the Federal Republic of Germany. They have marked political, moral, and material support from government bodies and high-placed officials in the Federal Republic of Germany. Federal German citizens are literally being poisoned from childhood with the venom of militarist and revanchist ideas which also color school curricula, literature, the press, films, and television. On these ideas, Hitler officers and generals bring up Bundeswehr soldiers. All kinds of refererence books, projects, and incorrect maps with European borders recarved in a revanchist way are being circulated in millions of copies throughout the world officially and often by way of contraband.

How should the note of the Federal German Government be interpreted in the light of such a situation?

3-The interests of European security require that all states respect existing European borders and strictly safeguard their inviolability as well as renounce any plans to revise frontiers. No state in present-day Europe challenges the existing borders, the only exception being the Federal Republic, whose government has made claims to vast territories of a number of European states the center of its state policy.

Even in the note which the Federal German Government would like to picture as a "peace initiative," it found it possible to put forward a thesis on revision of European countries, claiming that "Germany continues to exist within the boundaries of 31 December 1937." This gives out the secret of the whole of German Govern

ment policy. It is for reestablishing the Hitler Reich of 1937 that the Federal German Government, above all, is pursuing its policy of militarization.

But it is clear to everyone that the former Kaiser and Hitler Reich is a thing of the past never to return and that it collapsed under the burden of its own crimes. It is common knowledge that the frontiers of prewar Europe did not suit German ruling circles. To revise these frontiers, they launched World War I and II. What this led to is known to all. All those who would like to revert to the old course, whether alone or by setting up some new "axis," can now pretend that nothing has happened since then and that it is possible to simply go back to where Hitler started his brigandish marches against almost all European states.

It would be wrong to think that the countries neighboring on the Federal German Republic which have had first hand experience with the perfidy of the German Reich, do not keep a close watch on the real situation in the Federal German Republic and form their judgements of the policies of the Federal German Republic only on the basis of the contradictory assurances of its government.

The Soviet people are particularly familiar with the methods of German militarism and its boundless passion for seizures. German invaders intruded into the territory of the young Soviet Russia in the very first months of its existence. They occupied the Ukraine, Belorussia, and the Baltic republics, subjecting these areas to merciless plunder. Over 20 million human lives, 1,710 burned and demolished cities, over 70,000 villages razed to the ground, the barbarous destruction of cultural memorialssuch is the monstrous sum total of the Nazi aggression against the Soviet Union in World War II. The Soviet people had to make unprecedented sacrifices in order to rout the Reich which was making an attempt on the very life of the Soviet people, on their right to live in conditions of peace and freedom.

Enormous sacrifices and suffering fell to the lot of the peoples of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, France and many other European countries. All of them have their own account to settle with German militarism and there is no getting away from it for the Federal Government.

4-The changes that have taken place in Europe are a historical outcome of the long and difficult struggle of the peoples against German militarism. The international decisions taken in Potsdam in 1945 on preventing the revival of German militarism and Nazism were directed toward the future primarily to insure lasting peace in Europe in which the people of the Federal Republic of Germany cannot help being interested, too.

It will soon be 17 years since two independent and sovereign German states the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany-have been in existence and are developing on the territory of the former Reich. The Soviet Government has more than once pointed to the abyss which lies between the policies of these states. The Soviet Union does not conceal its sentiments of sincere sympathy and fraternity towards the GDR which is building socialism and making a major contribution to the cause of peace and seIcurity in the center of Europe and enjoying the respect of peace-loving states and peoples of the world.

The Government of the Federal Republic is well familiar with the contents of the commitments undertaken by the USSR, the GDR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and other member countries of the Warsaw Pact to prevent another aggression by German militarism, to guarantee the stability of the frontiers that have taken shape. The Government of the Federal German Republic cannot but reckon with the existence of the treaty of friendship, mutual assistance, and cooperation between the USSR and GDR of 12 June 1964.16 It is not thanks to the graces of the Federal German Republic that the European states and their frontiers exist. All talk of the Federal Government about the frontiers of other European states, particularly frontiers far removed from the boundaries of the Federal Republic of Germany itself, is absolutely senseless.

The frontier along the Oder and Lusatian Neisse established by the Potsdam agreements" and recorded in the Zgorzele treaty concluded between Poland and the GDR18 are final and unalterable.

The Federal Government presents almost as a "gesture of good will" its

16 Text in American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1964, pp. 533-535. 17 See footnote 3 to doc. IV-47, ante. 18 319 UNTS 93.

statement that the territorial provisions of the 1938 Munich agreement1o no longer have any significance. Indeed, no one entertains-nor can they entertain-any doubts as to the frontiers of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. However, it is noteworthy that the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany obviously does not desire to denounce and recognize fully and from the very outset the invalidity of this act of coercion and piracy.

The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, its parliament and population, must be clearly aware that any encroachments on the frontiers of the German Democratic Republic, on its sovereignty, on the frontiers of Poland and Czechoslovakia, will meet with a crushing rebuff on the part of the USSR, the GDR, Poland, Czechoslovakia and all other European states allied with them.

In its note the Federal Government pretends that it allegedly is able to speak not only on its own behalf but also on behalf of the GDR. Such claims cannot be squared with the principles of international law or the demands of elementary common sense. It does not look as though anyone would get the idea that on questions pertaining to the GDR, one must approach the Federal German Republic and not the GDR. It is common knowledge that the 1954 Paris agreements, to which the United States, Britain, France and the German Federal Republic are parties, definitely point out that state authority of the German Federal Republic is implemented on its own, the Federal, territory. And the Constitution of the German Federal Republic proceeds from the assumption, as is well known, that the state agencies of the republic represent precisely the German Federal Republic and no other state.

21

How far the Government of the German Federal Republic goes in its absurd claims to speak on behalf of "the whole of Germany" is shown by its attempts to extend the operation of German Federal Republic laws to citizens of the GDR and even Poland and the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Government fully subscribes to and supports the statement

19 See footnote 5 to doc. IV-47, ante. 20 Texts in American Foreign Policy, 19501955: Basic Documents, vol. I, pp. 483-612.

21 Text in Germany, 1947-1949: The Story in Documents (Department of State publication 3556, 1950), pp. 283-305.

by the GDR Government concerning absurd actions such as this by the authorities of the German Federal Republic which only emphasize the aggressive essence of its policy."

5-One of the major conditions for safeguarding peace and security in Europe is the prevention of the further spread of nuclear weapons. Attention of the peoples is now riveted to the draft international treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons which is under discussion at Geneva."

It will be recalled that the 20th session of the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution on the necessity of such a treaty, emphasizing that the "treaty must not have any loopholes which would allow nuclear or nonnuclear powers to carry out proliferation, direct or indirect, of nuclear weapons in any form." "

The question arises whether the Federal Government will comply with this resolution, whether it is ready to renounce its plans for German Federal Republic access to nuclear weapons through the machinery of NATO or any other means as the U.N. resolution unequivocally demands.

A clear-cut reply to this question would make it unnecessary for the German Federal Republic Government to complain against some propaganda which, as the German Federal Republic note says, "seeks to cast aspersions and to misinterpret the position of the Federal Government on questions of disarmament and security."

It cannot be ignored that the Government of the German Federal Republic in its note does not say a single word about its attitude regarding the idea of the conclusion of a treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, as though its does not exist. In effect it hints that it is not concerned with the efforts of states which are pressing for the early conclusion of this treaty, nor for the aspirations of the peoples that are striving for the elimination of the threat of a nuclear

war.

Compelled to take into consideration the firm resolve of the peaceable states to bar the road to the further

22 See footnote 31 to doc. IV-51, post. 23 See post, docs. X-5 et seq.

24 Text in American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1965, pp. 352–353.