Monday, 14 November

Georges Lamy-Pérerie wrote in the Combat today on the “2 obsessions” in the United States.  He spoke on the fear of the war with the USSR among the Americans: In such a war, some 800 bombs A, H, U, or C, (Cobalt) would rain on the aggressor within six hours and the cities and their people would be almost wiped out. But according to the reports of American authorities themselves the Russian fighter planes seemed to be better than the American and several hundreds of supersonic MiG17 have been disposed, while the F100 supersonics have not entered with service yet. In the field of bombers of the medium range, the B47 outclasses the Russian “Sudgov” in quality as well as in quantity. But in intercontinental bombers they are about equal—the Soviet “Beson’ and the B52 Stratojet—with all the bases around the Soviet Union with American air force certainly appeared to be more menacing than the Russian scratch. But, (i) air-defense in America is almost inexistent; (ii) shelter impossible; (iii) rapid evacuation of big cities impossible and panicky.

Walter Lippmann wrote that Dulles, Macmillan and Pinay went to Geneva knowing that the Soviet Union would never accept their terms for the reunification of Germany as these old [Konrad] Adenauer terms—Germany reunited within frontiers that are better than those of Potsdam, reunited under his government and under his party, rearmed within NATO and when rearmed, the leading European power within NATO—were not negotiable. They remained inflexible and the reason was that they feared the effect on the German opposition to Dr. Adenauer of any concession from them. This German opposition has always maintained that Germany could not be unified as an armed state within the Western military alliance. But to make German membership in NATO negotiable would be to take a position that Moscow cannot reject without great loss of face in Germany, while if stood fixed in a position that is not negotiable, there will be in Germany a growing loss of confidence in our good sense and even in our sincerity. If we stand pat on our present terms, we must be prepared to see increasing intercourse and direct negotiation between the West and East Germans. In so far as we cannot or will not negotiate across the table with the two Germans, the Germans themselves will negotiate under the table.

I do not think the Western Powers can do anything. They should not complain when they asked for the “moon” and did not get it.

[Private matter, one paragraph not available online]