Foreign Relations: Not By Accident

Like an Olympic hammer thrower gathering momentum for a major effort, the West last week swung slowly through the first motions of response to the Soviet challenge on Berlin.

In Washington, London, Paris and Bonn, Western diplomats worked painstakingly over the wording of separate but cautiously coordinated memorandums that will answer Premier Nikita Khrushchev's demand for a German peace treaty by year's end. Weighing each word with infinite care, Washington labored long on its own answer. President Kennedy rejected the State Department's first draft; in lengthy sessions with his ranking experts—Military...

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