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    "localId": "75849809",
    "label": "Transcript of Princeton Seminar Discussion, Reel 1 and 2",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Transcript of Princeton Seminar Discussion, Reel 1 and 2",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75849809",
    "collections": [
        "Dean Acheson Papers",
        "Princeton Seminars Files"
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 16,
            "logicalDate": "1953-07-16",
            "month": 7,
            "year": 1953
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{
    "seq": 34,
    "pageIndex": 0,
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    "ocrText": "7/16/53 - 34\nconditions on which unity can be brought about.\nMr.\nAcheson\nstated\nthat\nwe\nhave\n45\nmillion\nWe?\nGermans behind us. They are not going to let German communist stooges in East Germany\ndominate them. Accordingly, our fundamental attitude is to go ahead with the establish\nment of a Western government, come hell or high water. Any unification must be on the\nbasis of the Bonn Constitution. Our principle objective in Paris will be to get from\nthe Russians a clear delineation of our rights, with no conditions attached whatever.\n[I think what he's talking about here is Berlin.] In short, perhaps the most that can\nbe hoped from the Paris Conference is that there will be set down on paper a clear,\nunequivocal statement of our rights of the three Western occupying pawers in Germany,\n[I think he means in Berlin.] so that in no future time will the Russians be in a\nposition to challenge these rights. As regards unification, Mr. Acheson made it\nabundantly clear that we do not want to get into any intricate negotiations on how\nEastern and Western Cermans are to work together. That essentially is a long-range\nproblem for the Germans, both Tastern and Western, to work out\nbetween\nthemselves. Therefore what we must do in Paris is to see to it that these negotiations\nbetween the Germans and themselves, if and when they come, will be on a basis di of\nthe\nequality, both political and economic, Politically in the sense that/Western German\npolitical leaders will not be talking to a Soviet stooge, but rather to a freely elected,\nEastern German political leader. Economically, any arrangements worked out must be on\nthe basis of the trade between the East and West with us(?) Taking the Bonn Consti-\ntution as the point of departure when the question of German unification arises, assuming\n?\na reasonable attitude on the part of the Soviets, we will decide what arrangements must\nbe made, under which the Eastern zones will come into the provisional government. Mr.\nmust\nAcheson went on to explain what those arrangements be: (1) Elections must be held\nin\nEastern Germany in which all parties can participate and cast their votes freely with-\nout intimidation. Xicks The only way this can be assured is under Four-Power supervision.\n(2) Without supervision and such assurances, it is not our policy to have people elected\nin order to send them to Siberia. (3) With such supervision, Eastern Germans freely\nelected, can deal with Western Germans freely elected on any unification plan. We must\nnot subject Western German political leaders to direct negotiation with the Soviet Union"
}