World: Moscow Chat

An ambitious West German diplomat more or less went into business for himself last week and created a major international flap over Berlin. Bonn’s Ambassador to Moscow is stocky little Hans Anton Kroll, 63, a brusque, elbowy diplomat who is widely disliked in the diplomatic world for such incidents as calling the Japanese “half apes,” or using embassy secretaries as waitresses at cocktail parties. More seriously, Kroll plugs German rapprochement with Russia. “We must take the détente bus before it leaves with out us,” he insists. “We must establish good enough relations with Moscow so that the Soviets will hesitate to reach a reckless settlement in Washington at our expense.”

Respect Wanted. At a Moscow reception two weeks ago, Kroll found himself alongside Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, who casually suggested that some interim Berlin solution might be possible. Pressed to elaborate, Gromyko outlined a three-point plan in which West Berlin’s freedom and its access to the West might be guaranteed in exchange for the West’s agreement to “respect” East German sovereignty. Gromyko and U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk had gone over the same ground in their September talks in Washington and New York. But Kroll excitedly buttonholed Nikita Khrushchev on the subject a little later in the evening. Khrushchev asked Kroll to drop over to his office for a chat soon, and when Kroll presented himself two days later, Nikita said jovially: “Tell me how to get out of this Berlin situation.” Kroll told him—for an hour and 45 minutes.

Enthusiastically, Kroll brought up the points Gromyko had tossed out at the reception. What’s more, he added, there should be more contacts between West Germany and East Germany. Above all, West Germany and the Soviet Union must come to a “grand reconciliation” to end the years of hostility.

Kroll’s cabled reports on the Moscow chat stunned Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Within ten days he would be in Washington for talks with President John F. Kennedy on the next steps in the Berlin crisis; U.S. Ambassador Thompson was awaiting the outcome before picking up his own discussions with the Russians. Sputtering with rage, Adenauer demanded Kroll’s head.

Bowing to Pressure. Kroll was hardly contrite as he arrived in Bonn for his knuckle-rapping, demanded that the official criticism of his action be retracted. Kroll’s confidence stemmed from his prominent membership in the Free Democratic Party, which forced its way into a coalition with Adenauer’s Christian Democrats after the September elections. The Free Democrats have often toyed with a fresh approach to the “Eastern problem,” and the party’s boss, Erich Mende, advised Adenauer that he would not tolerate harsh treatment for Kroll.

This political pressure, weighed against word from Bonn’s ambassador in Washington that neither the White House nor the State Department was unduly concerned with Kroll’s call at the Kremlin, softened the Chancellor’s ire. All right, he agreed, Herr Kroll could return to his Moscow post. But, he added, there were to be absolutely no more talks without advance approval. As he headed for Washington, his own position on Berlin apparently unchanged, Adenauer was serene.