<--PREV Doc #404  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #406 Document #405; September 8, 1953 To Konrad Adenauer Series: EM, AWF, International Series ; Category: Telegram. Confidential The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part III: The Space Age Begins; October 1957 to January 1958 Chapter 6: Building strength when there is "no perfect answer"   It was with deep satisfaction that the American people and Government have learned the results of the German Parliamentary elections just held in your country.1 You must indeed feel that the voters have strongly endorsed those constructive policies for which you have been striving in the last few years. Let me assure you that my Government is pleased at the prospect of further cooperation with the Federal Republic in the strengthening of free Europe and the Atlantic community, politically, economically and as regards our common defense, and at the same time in seeking to end the present artificial division of Germany and the totalitarian regime imposed by force on some 18 million of your fellow countrymen.2 1 On September 6 West German voters had endorsed Chancellor Adenauer's program for affiliation with Western Europe and close cooperation with the United States by returning his Christian Democratic Union party to power with a majority (244 seats) in the new Bundestag. The opposition Social Democratic party had received 28.8 percent of the vote, a clear repudiation of their stated goal of placing reunification ahead of closer ties with the West. For Eisenhower's thoughts regarding Germany's position among the Western nations and his reaction to the election see also nos. 315, 337, and 457. 2 In thanking the President for his message, Adenauer would emphasize that the German people had endorsed "the great goals of the Federal Government's foreign policy: Reunification of Germany in peace and freedom and the formation of a free European community, which in cooperation with all free nations of the Atlantic world will strive for the preservation of peace and the security of our free way of life" (Adenauer to Eisenhower, Sept. 10, 1953, AWF/Germany). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Telegram. Confidential To Konrad Adenauer, 8 September 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 405. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/405.cfm <--PREV Doc #404  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #406

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