ABSTRACT
1. I have carefully read your draft letter containing a proposal for making progress on the Berlin initiative. It is most imaginative but I do not think that we can put it forward. The reasons for this are that it is not possible for the 4 Allies to meet with the GDR and the FRG even to have talks about non-Berlin related matters. Non-Berlin related issues are either for our Embassies in the GDR or the FRG to talk about, or for the Germans themselves to discuss. We do not talk to the GDR and the Soviets would not want to talk to the FRG. Furthermore, to allow the GDR and the FRG to be present at talks between the 4 Allies over Berlin, even though they were sitting in the background, would be to give them both a locus standi in relation to Berlin which is not possible from the status point of view.
