The Big Duel

Greyer, but more relaxed and amiable than when Stalin was alive, Vyacheslav Molotov gazed straight ahead through his pince-nez. He was outnumbered three to one, but as usual was demanding that the majority do business his way.

Anthony Eden fidgeted a bit, crossing and uncrossing his Savile Row-clad legs. Georges Bidault sat with head back and eyes closed as if in sleep; he was as alert as an ocelot. John Foster Dulles looked up from a note pad scratched with doodles.

The sorry, old Big Four pattern, the haggling over shadows without getting to the substance, seemed to have descended on the Berlin conference. Molotov insisted on his order of business; the West wanted to cut straight to the central issue, Germany. But Dulles finished off his response with gentle surprise. "I propose that we refuse to be discouraged and get ahead with our business . . . Mr. Molotov has proposed an agenda. It is not an agenda which we would propose, but it is an agenda which we will take for the sake of getting on with our work."

Bidault and Eden quickly concurred--they had settled on the maneuver that morning. Molotov, though it showed little in his cool, confident manner, was ruffled.

He leaned to his right to murmur something to Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, who scribbled a hasty note. Then Molotov rambled for 25 minutes before launching into the agenda so surprisingly agreed on.

In two days, the Berlin Conference was set to discuss the meaty issues: German unity, the Austrian treaty.

On the third day, Dulles proposed to move on to the business that brought the West to Berlin--Germany. Bidault pounced on Molotov's proposal that the Big Four invite Red China to a full-scale peace parley next spring. "China is aiding the rebels in Indo-China in a war that is killing many French people and causing much suffering in France," said he. "France cannot ignore this. As long as this situation lasts, we cannot meet with the Chinese People's Republic." But he did not shut the door all the way. "If the facts should change, of course, France could then reconsider the position."

But Vyacheslav Molotov had come armed with all the tools and tricks of the trade he works so well. To despairing France he hinted broadly that a conference with Red China might produce an end to the blood drain of Indo-China. For straitened Britain he depicted a landscape fruity with profitable trade behind the Iron Curtain. "Only a few countries," said he, with a glance at Dulles, "don't want to trade with Russia and China. Most do."

Johnnie Walker, Red. The faint suggestion of a smile worked at the corners of Molotov's mouth as he left the third day's proceedings: Was he mistaken, or had Britain and France seemed not quite so anxious as the U.S. to shut him up and move on? At the delegates' bar, where Eden and Bidault sipped cocktails and Dulles munched a sandwich, Molotov confidently downed two shots of Johnnie Walker (Red Label).

The Big Three of the West, though, were still united in their resolve to cut through Molotov's tactics.

"When we adjourned yesterday evening," said Dulles next day, "I had a sense of complete recall to those days of 1945 when I gained a great admiration for Mr. Molotov's diplomatic skill. I am glad to see that he has not lost his touch. Yesterday Mr. Molotov produced out of the hat rabbits for all of us--peace in Korea, peace in Indo-China, an end to the armaments race . . . the ending of all tensions everywhere."

Abrupt and unsmiling, Dulles rammed a pencil point into his scratch pad. "But who is this Chou En-lai whose addition to our circle would make possible all that so long seemed impossible [see box]? He is a leader of a regime which gained de facto power on the China mainland through bloody war . . . which became an open aggressor in Korea . . . which promotes aggression in Indo-China.

"Mr. Molotov has entertained us by an exhibition of his ability to make the preposterous seem plausible. However, we did not come here for entertainment." Molotov asked if the record could at least show that the conference did not reject a five-power meeting. Dulles snapped that the U.S. certainly did reject one.

Then Dulles sprang the West's next procedural maneuver--to put over discussion of the Chinese issue until later, in a closed meeting, i.e., one not followed by briefings for newsmen.

To "speed matters," Molotov obligingly agreed. The Western foreign ministers reached at last for their portfolios on Germany and Austria. But Molotov smiled a polite smile. "I crave your indulgence. It so happens I have with me ... another resolution I wish to table." He laid it before the others. If words could mildew, it would have been a deep, miasmic green, for it was the old, empty Soviet proposal for a world-disarmament conference.

For the fourth straight day Molotov Tiad kept the conference away from Germany.

"Some Misunderstanding." Afraid that Molotov was determined to spin his disarmament proposal into a filibuster, the Western foreign ministers went back into the conference hall next day determined to hold Molotov to business. Strong words proved enough.

As he gaveled the meeting to order, Dulles remarked curtly, "I believe that there is nothing more to add to Item I of the agenda."

"There must be some misunderstanding," Molotov protested. What about the Soviet proposal for a world-disarmament conference?

"The agenda item . . . has ... the words 'measures for reducing tensions in international relations,' " replied Dulles.

"But so far this conference has merely aggravated world tensions ... If this conference can do nothing better . . . then I don't think we are justifying the time and effort which we are spending here."

Whispers passed between Molotov and his advisers. Had there been just a hint of a Western walkout? Into that moment of uncertainty darted Bidault with a carefully drafted French proposal for keeping disarmament talks within the U.N., and a further suggestion that both his own and Molotov's arms proposals be put off for private discussion later. This time Molotov surprised the others. "I do not consider it advantageous to draw out discussions," said one of diplomacy's mas ter procrastinators.

At last the men who sat in the sundered heart of Berlin had reached the heart of their business-- the future of sundered Germany. From his dispatch case Anthony Eden withdrew a document. It was, in full and precise detail, the West's terms for reunifying Germany and completing the World War II peace:

P: Free elections throughout Germany, to be supervised by the Big Four powers.

P:Convening of a constituent assembly chosen in those elections.

P: Drafting of a German constitution by the assembly.

P: Formation of a constitutional government free to make what treaties, choose what alliances it desires. The present East and West German governments would exist until then.

P: A final peace treaty negotiated by the all-German government and the victorious Allies.

It was a sharp, clear challenge. The West was willing to gamble the very core of its defense strategy -- German rearmament within a European army-- on a program that would leave Germans free to accept or reject alliance with the West, with Russia, with anyone.

A Unanimous No. Did Russia dare accept the challenge? Would it gamble its own ambitions in Germany and its desire to crush EDC on a free German election? The Western foreign ministers felt sure that they knew the answer, but they wanted Germany and the rest of the world to hear it.

Vyacheslav Molotov dodged. First he dipped into humor: Mr. Eden, he said wryly, had spoken "like a scholarly constitutionalist of a strict German type." Eden embarrassedly sucked a cigarette and studied the Last Judgment painted on the ceiling; the others had a good laugh.

Then Molotov resorted again to procedure, he wanted to call in the East German government, which the West does not recognize, and Konrad Adenauer's West German government, which Russia does not recognize. To the unanimous "No" of the West, the ministers adjourned.

Next meeting, the sixth, Molotov tried again to wangle the East German Communists into the hall. Again the Western ers stood firm. Again Molotov surprised them. With a genial bow, he let the matter rest.

Georges Bidault, speaking for Germany's bitter enemy through centuries of war, ringingly endorsed the Eden plan. It is time for "a new deal" for Germans, said the ex-Resistance leader. "An imposed peace is out of the question, unseasonable and unreasonable."

Dulles, casting aside the careful sarcasm and barbed debating points he had been tossing through the week at Molotov, made a plea for the unity and trust that once joined Russia and the West in war against aggression. He spoke of Germany's right to live again and the world's right to assurances that she will live peacefully.

"The Soviet Union professes to fear that this new [European Defense] community which is being born might be dangerous to it," Dulles said. "This community, it is true, will make Europe healthy, more prosperous and in that sense more strong, but that is nothing to fear if at the same time Europe is made more peaceful . . . My plea is, therefore, that we explore this matter, not in any sense as representing opposing sides, but as a group of countries which . . . seek a single goal--the transforming of Europe from a cockpit of war to a home of abiding peace."

Familiar Sound. This week the conference was transferred from the U.S. to the Soviet sector of Berlin. In the first session in the giant, new Soviet embassy, Molotov submitted his own plan for Germany. It had a familiar sound. He suggested that the four powers sign a peace treaty with a united Germany--but made no mention of guaranteeing free elections first. Essentially his proposal was a rehash of what the Russians proposed in 1952. No prior commitments (such as EDC) would be permitted the new government, its arms would be limited to "tasks of a purely internal character" and its borders to what was left it at Potsdam.

Apologizing at the end for the length of his speech, Molotov cracked, "I am afraid that, as we say in Moscow, I have overfulfilled my plan."

Replied Dulles unsmilingly: "I could keep awake indefinitely under the stimulus of new ideas. I find it very difficult to keep awake when an old refrain is played again, again and again."

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