The United States and West Germany maintained close relations built upon on political, economic, and military cooperation, and a shared hostility against East Germany and the Soviet Union. Both countries viewed East Germany as a proxy state for Soviet interests, which they believed could have undermined stability in the region, especially regarding the status of Berlin.
The relationship was one of the closest the United States had with any country during the Cold War. Relations formally began in 1955 and after German reunification relations have continued under the current German Republic following the collapse of East Germany.
History
Following Germany's surrender in 1945 on May 8, 1945, the U.S. occupied Germany until 1949. The Soviet Union's occupied German Zone was what would become East Germany (GDR) being formally founded on October 7, 1949. The response by the U.S. was that it would not recognize the establishment of the East German state and that it was "without any legal validity," and that it would "continue to give full support to the Government of the German Federal Republic at Bonn in its efforts to restore a truly free and democratic Germany." Efforts to restore Germany under one nation collapsed which led to West Germany and the U.S. establishing formal relations on May 6, 1955.
Eisenhower administration From April 6–17, 1953, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer became the first leader of West Germany to visit the United States. He arrived on the sixth in New York City before flying to Washington where he visited from April 7 to 9 and met with President Dwight D. Eisenhower. This marked the first interaction by leaders of both countries. From April 10–17, Adenauer took an eight-day tour of the United States visiting San Francisco, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Chicago, New York, and Boston before leaving on the seventeenth to Canada and Bonn the following day.
On October 29, 1954, the U.S. and West Germany signed the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between the United States of America and the Federal Republic of Germany, in Washington, D.C. The treaty entered into force two years later on July 14, 1956.
On July 1, 1955, Konrad Adenauer was one of several invited heads of state/government who attended the completed renovation ceremony of the Eisenhower house and farm and the thirty-ninth wedding anniversary of Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower in Cumberland Township, Pennsylvania.
From August 26–27, 1959, Eisenhower became the first American President to visit West Germany where he held informal meetings with Konrad Adenauer, and President Theodor Heuss. Eisenhower was greeted on the runway of Bonn Airport by Adenauer. Still, on the runway, Eisenhower addressed the crowd of more than one hundred thousand German citizens where he stated, "In my country, the name Adenauer has come to symbolize the determination of the German people to remain strong and free. And the American people stand by your stand in assuring that the loyal free people of free Berlin will like yourselves will continue always to enjoy that great privilege." Adenauer made a brief remark where he called the United States the "standard bearer of freedom throughout the world". Both men rode through the streets of Bonn waving to crowds.
Kennedy administration
After John F. Kennedy was elected President, relations between the U.S. and West Germany became closer which continued after his tenure in office as meetings between senior leaders from both countries became constant. On March 13, 1961, Willy Brandt, then the Mayor of West Berlin met with Kennedy at the White House over the status of Berlin.
From April 12–13, Adenauer met with Kennedy at the White House for the first time and was the first meeting between senior leaders since 1959. On the sixteenth, Adenauer and then-Vice President Lyndon Johnson visited Johnson's home state of Texas.
On April 20, Adenauer exchanged a letter with Kennedy on the Cuban Missile Crisis where Adenauer states he was informed by Lyndon Johnson over the crisis describing it as being further aggravated by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
Berlin Crisis
On July 25, 1961, Kennedy gave a televised address from the Oval Office on the Berlin Crisis. Kennedy described Berlin as "the great testing place of Western courage and will". Kennedy warned the nation to assume that nuclear war was possible and requested from the U.S. Congress $3.27 billion dollars of appropriations for the U.S. Armed Forces, increasing the Army's size from 870,000 men to approximately one million, an increase of 29,000 and 63,000 men respectively in active duty strength of the Navy and the Air Force. Ships and planes that were headed for retirement to be retained or reactivated, increasing airpower tactically and sealift, airlift, and anti-submarine warfare capability. B-47 bombers that were to be deactivated were to be delayed. $1.8 billion, which was about half of the total sum was requested for the procurement of non-nuclear weapons, ammunition, and equipment.
Kennedy stated in his address that on the following day he would request from Congress funds to protect American citizens from a potential nuclear fallout over Berlin which was, "to identify and mark space in existing structures, public and private, that could be used for fall-out shelters in case of attack; to stock those shelters with food, water, first-aid kits and other minimum essentials for survival; to increase their capacity; to improve our air-raid warning and fallout detection systems, including a new household warning system which is now under development; and to take other measures that will be effective at an early date to save millions of lives if needed."
Kennedy's government faced a dramatic increase in the defense budget.Anglo-American strategic relations and the French problem, 1960-1963: a troubled partnership, p. 189 The negative balance of payments with the European allies had aggravated American fiscal problems. In late-1961, US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara concluded an arrangement with West Germany whereby the latter was to annually purchase some American military hardware. However, this only partially alleviated the payments issue.
Kennedy ordered 500 military men to travel on trucks through East Germany to West Berlin to ensure that the West preserved the land-link to the city. In late October 1961, a dispute over the right of one U.S. diplomat to cross East Berlin flared into conflict. Soviet and American tanks faced one another at Checkpoint Charlie, but Kennedy through an intermediary offered Nikita Khrushchev a conciliatory formula and both superpowers withdrew their tanks.
On August 13, 1961, East Germany suddenly erected a temporary barbed wire barricade and then a concrete barrier, dividing Berlin known as the Berlin Wall. Kennedy noted that "it seem[ed] particularly stupid to risk killing millions of Americans... because Germans want[ed] Germany to be reunified".
In August 1961, Kennedy and Willy Brandt began letter exchanges over the Berlin crisis. The first letter was sent by Brandt on August 16. Brandt urged in his letter for direct action against the East Germans and the Soviets. Brandt went on to describe the Communist encroachment as "the most serious in the postwar history of this city since the (1948) blockade." And criticized Kennedy stating, "While in the past Allied Commandants have even protested against parades by the so-called National People’s Army in East Berlin, this time, after military occupation of the East Sector by the People’s Army, they have limited themselves to delayed and not very vigorous steps." Brandt wanted the issue to be taken in front of the United Nations as he described the actions of the Soviets had "violated the Declaration of Human Rights in most flagrant manner." Brandt stated, "It would be welcomed if the American garrison were to be demonstratively strengthened."
Kennedy responded on August 18 stating that the U.S. will continue the buildup of military strength in response to the Soviet threat to Berlin and supported Brandt's proposal for a plebiscite to demonstrate West Berlin's destiny is its freedom in connection with the West.
However, Kennedy found Brandt's letter to be an attack over his handling of the crisis. Brandt had finished the letter with "I consider the situation serious enough, Mr. President, to write to you in all frankness as is possible only between friends who trust each other completely." Kennedy angrily waved the letter at his Press Secretary Pierre Salinger saying, "Trust? I don’t trust this man at all. He’s in the middle of a campaign against old Adenauer and wants to drag me in. Where does he get off calling me a friend!" Kennedy had rejected Brandt's ideas outside of troop deployment. Kennedy had shown the letter to war reporter Marguerite Higgins in disgust to which she responded, "Mr. President, I must tell you quite openly that in Berlin the suspicion is growing that you want to sell out the West Berliners".
In October, a US-Soviet war nearly occurred as U.S. and Soviet tanks faced off across Checkpoint Charlie. The crisis was defused largely through a backchannel communication the Kennedy administration had set up with Soviet spy Georgi Bolshakov.
Post-Berlin Crisis From November 20–22, 1961, Adenauer visited the White House meeting with Kennedy. On the 21st a luncheon was held in his honor.
On February 20, 1962, Adenauer sent Kennedy a letter congratulating the success of John Glenn's space flight where he became the first American to orbit the Earth.
In response to the Spiegel affair, the United States felt the effort of the leaks of the assessment of West German military capabilities had undone diplomatic efforts between West and East Germany over Berlin. On April 30, Heinrich von Brentano visited Washington and met with Kennedy to restore the trust between Bonn and Washington and the common initiatives that Brentano created when he was Foreign Minister.
On October 5, Kennedy met with Willy Brandt and FRG ambassador to the United States Karl Heinrich Knappstein. The meeting came at a time where anti-American protests were occurring in Bonn. Kennedy sent Brandt a letter on November 14 in response to Brandt's letter from October 29 where he congratulated his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy rejected Brandt's idea of a plebiscite over Berlin until Soviet intentions had become clearer and offered that Brandt should continue to develop unified German proposals.
On October 17, West German Foreign Minister Gerhard Schröder met with Kennedy at the White House. The Soviet Union believed that Schröder told Kennedy of West Germany intelligence reports of Soviet missiles in Cuba during the missile crisis. However, a secret recording of the meeting did not reveal any such conversation about Cuba, the missiles, or any intelligence reports. The meeting revolved around Berlin. Kennedy had not told the minister of such discovery by the U.S. of the missiles.
From November 14–15, Adenauer returned to the U.S. for a two-day visit at the White House. Kennedy alluded Adenauer's visit as a turning point between the East and West relations in reference to the Cuban Missile Crisis to which Adenauer congratulated Kennedy's success in handling the crisis. Adenauer was invited by Kennedy in a letter from October 10. On the seventeenth to downplay rumors of tension between the leaders, Kennedy sent a letter to Adenauer.
Ich bin ein Berliner