The Paul Nim- Sehool of Advanced Internallonal Studxex Hopkins February 6 1990 The President of the United States The White House Washington D C 20500 My dear Mr President During the last week I attended a meeting in Berlin of the Forum for Germany Some 120 western Eurupe discussed the fading realit1_n the_divisidn of Germany and of Europe In the concluding session repre sentatives of the two superpowers were scheduled to present their views In the unavoidable absence of Richard Burt who could not leave Geneva to join us he asked me to present the U S position I_enclose a copy of the subgtance_gf_my concluding remarks In the discussions of the first day of the conference the majority view appeared to be that unification would and should take time In addition an agreement between the Warsaw Pact and NATO would be required perhaps to be formally ratified by the Helsinki process Such an agreement would involve equal concessions by both sides including the withdrawal of both East and West troops from a unified Germany If the Warsaw Pact were dissolved NATO would also be dissolved At the end of the conference the consensus view had radically changed Almost all except the Soviet delegation agreed that German reunification had taken place while we were meeting and was now irreversible that there was no valid analogy between the Warsaw Pact and was a true alliance the other consisted of arrangements formerly imposed upon countries now no longer under Soviet dominance that the idea of neutrality was inapproyriate to a unified I740 Masuchusetu Avenue N W Washington 19 0 20036 The President February 6 1990 Page 2 Germany and unacceptable and that Germany should enter into discussions with its allies and its neighbors with a View to taking their interests fully into account I thought it a good meeting and hope that its tentative conclusions can be carried forward With all my best personal wishes Respectfully Paul H Nitze Enclosure                     National Security Archive    Suite 701  Gelman Library  The George Washington University    2130 H Street  NW  Washington  D C  20037    Phone  202 994‐7000  Fax  202 994‐7005  nsarchiv@gwu edu