BERLIN CHRONOLOGY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00472A001200010002-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 20
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 17, 2001
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: January 12, 1965
• Content Type: PAPER

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App red For t* Iep8$,K t6%q%s?lP-RDPKT00472AOOl 00010002-
OCI No. 0521/65
Copy No . '.' Ij
12 January 1965
BERLIN CHRONOLOGY
A Chronology of Reports Concerning the Berlin Situation
(Received During the Week Ending at 1200 EST 12 January 1965)
This is a working paper prepared in the
EE Division, Sino-Soviet Bloc Area, Office
of Current Intelligence, CIA
Prepared by Ext 7441
State, DIA, Army, JCS declassification & release instructions on file
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28 Dec Moscow beamed to the UK an English language commentary
reiterating the Soviet UN proposal for a nonaggression
pact between NATO and Pact countries. The commentary
suggested that FRG policy, termed "revanchist concepts
and militarist plans," should be "thrown overboard."
(UNCL)
.29 Dec Soviet Ambassador to the GDR, P. A. Abrasimov, gave
a reception to all diplomatic representations
accredited to the GDR at the Embassy in East Berlin.
GDR deputy foreign ministers Koenig and Krolikowski
attended the affair, which Neues Deutschland termed
"cordial and friendly." (UNCL
Both the Embassy and the Mission continued to sample
reaction to the announcement of the synthetic fiber
plant utilizing a US chemical process slated to be
built in East Germany. In his press conference,
Brandt expressed "regret" that the West had not made
more progress in developing a unified trade policy
toward the bloc. However, he thought press treatment
of the transaction was "too narrow" since the projected
fiber plant was not the first instance of Western
trade with the East Germans. The FRG Foreign Ministry
issued a press statement pointing out that trade
between East Germany and the US totalled ?or.y $4.5
million for the first six months of 1964--after
deducting $13.5 million in agricultural products
and coal. It further stated that the terms of the
transaction only called for the transfer of "technical
data"--not an entire plant facility--and no US
technicians were expected to go to the Soviet Zone..
Bild Zeitung printed the Embassy statement about the
USG never maintaining that it had informed the Fed
Rep in advance of the transaction but the tabloid
charged that the Germans "were at least supposed
to be tricked." They also intended to print an
open letter asking Litwin Engineering Company of
Witchita to "drop its plans in view of political
implications." Frankfurter Rundschau said the
affair was "becoming a matter of first-rate political
significance" and the Neue Rhein Ruhr Zeitung cited
"discord between Bonn and Washington." General
$nzeiger said the Germans had been made o look
like is. (UNCL)
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29 Dec Aleksandr Galkin, broadcasting from Moscow in German,
Cvn't said the rltons?betweendthenGermandFederal Republicent
in the relati
and the GDR. He called the Berlin pass agrement
an omen of a fresh approach to existing p e
Charging that failure to obtain an initiative at the
NATO conference in Paris in December was due to FRG
designs on nuclear armaments, Galkin said politicians
holding such views must be dumped or "failure and
.disaster will be constant companions" of West German
foreign policy. .(UNC )
31 Dec in an attempt to "explore every avenue," the Mission
asked a Soviet Embassy East Berlin official,conveying
New-:Year's greetings to inform Panin that the USG
would like the Soviets to use their good offices
to obtain Van Altena's release. A Departw4ent
suggestion for using the synthetic fiber plant
transaction as a lever to obtain Van Altena's
release was thought by the Mission to be of "doubtful
utility." The Mission further felt that the East
Germans would not be moved by any suggestion that
the USG was "under pressure"--presumably from the
FRG--since Pankow is "never disturbed by anything
which produces strains in Washington-Bonn relations."
(SECRET)
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31 Dec The Embassy agreed with the Department's view that
Con't progress toward Van Altena's release had been unsat-
isfactory. However, it opposed as too complicated
a suggestion to use the synthetic fiber plant deal
as a lever. Since FRG criticism of the transaction
already was vociferous, the USG would run the risk
of "increasing the difficulties on this score."
The Embassy suggested that possibly other licenses
or wheat orders, for example, might be used. It
agreed that an approach to Panin was in order; the
US Charge had authorized such an approach that day.
The Embassy commented that "US interest has been
cynically manipulated by Kaul, and has not been
particularly taken into consideration in Senat and
West German deliberations on the matter of lawyer
exchange." (SECRET)
After reviewing the Embassy's comments on linking
the synthetic fiber plant transaction with the Van
Altena affair, the Department reconsidered its
suggestion. Faced with the prospect that the USG
might have been duped by Kaul and slighted by the
Senat and FRG in deliberations for a lawyers'
exchange, the Department advised the Embassy and the
Mission to impress upon the West Germans the
importance the US attached to Van Altena's release
as a precondition of a lawyers' exchange--particularly
one that included Kaul. (SECRET)
1-3 Jan A 21-year-old women and 19-year-old man escaped
into West Berlin by mingling with returning
Passierscheine crowds at the Friedrichstrasse
U-Bahn station in East Berlin. (CONF)
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2 Jan Speculating on the outcome of the Bundestag elections,
the Embassy emphasized the close race between the
SPD and the CDU/CSU for a plurality. Recent local
elections and opinion polls indicated an upsurge in
SPD popularity--presumably because many West German
voters view Brandt's party as one of progress and
initiative. Removal of the threat of a Franco-German
confrontation, a miscalculation on the part of the
SPD in its dealings with the East, or improved relations
within the CDU/CSU all would tend to lessen SPD
chances and enhance those of the Erhard administration.
Whatever the outcome, the Embassy felt that present
US/FRG relations, based on efficient administration
and a consonance of objectives in foreign affairs,
would not be effected. (CONF)
3 Jan The Mission felt that recession of the ban on Kaul
was the most promising lever for obtaining Van Altena's
release available to the West. Since several East
German lawyers--Vogel for example--already practice
in West Berlin, GDR interest in arranging for a
mutual exchange probably is less than that of the
West--leaving only the ban on Kaul. (SECRET)
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4 Jan East Berlin domestic service commentator Fritz
Klein discussed "Washington's rather brusque
rejection of Bonn's proposal for an initiative in
the German question." He interpreted the US
statement calling upon West Germans to submit
concrete plans for European security, disarmament,
and borders as a way of saying the US must not be
"harnessed to the Federal Republic's revanchist
electioneering purposes." (UNCL)
Neues Deutschland called Erhard's proposal for an
Iin tiat ve a campaign device." ND said the result
was the Americans "turned up their-noses" because
they did not want to promote a "West German election
campaign