Word: berlins
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Acheson's "only visible alternative": "The Soviets must be convinced that we are genuinely determined to keep [air and ground] traffic to Berlin open, at whatever risk, rather than abandon the people of Berlin and permit the whole Western position to crumble. To that end, there is much to be done between now and the end of May-a real concerting of plans with our allies, a building up of NATO power in Europe, an increase in American troop strength and a return of British and French divisions to the continent, possibly Turkish and Italian reinforcements, and a strengthening...
United Front. The British believe in talking any time anywhere-an attitude that is frequently misunderstood, both by allies, convinced that the British are about to give something away, and by the Russians. hopeful that the British are about to concede something. On the fundamental point of Berlin, Harold Macmillan reassured his partners, he stands as firm as anyone. But not all were convinced...
Khrushchev no longer dismissed a preliminary Foreign Ministers' conference as "a waste of time," but he specified that only two topics could be considered: Berlin, and a peace treaty with the two Germanys. He also insisted that to give the Soviet Union "parity," the Czechs and the Poles should be invited...
Getting in the victims as well as the victors to write the German peace had a plausible sound, but it was also part of the Russian tactics to contest the West's legal right to be in Berlin, as conquerors, until a peace treaty is concluded. Khrushchev was also aiming to pack the meeting. The British were inclined to give way on admission of the Czechs and Poles to the conference table...
...that they are good at this kind of talking, and Macmillan, fighting flu internally and Nikita's slings from without, went through his ordeal with unflagging style. In private he firmly conveyed to the Soviet leader the danger of misunderstanding the West's determination to remain in Berlin. In public he answered Khrushchev's call for a non-aggression pact by proposing that "our disputes should be settled by negotiation and not by force." In the final communiqué his aides put in a few words, which the Russians did not bother to object to, in favor...