" Mont Tremblant Conference
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
\ PERSQNAL AND NOT FOR PUBLICATION STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL EITHER IN WHOLE OR IN PART BILDERBERG MEETINGS " MONT TREMBLANT CONFERENCE 26 - 28 April 1g68 BILDERBERG MEETINGS MONT TREMBLANT CONFERENCE 26 - 28 April 1968 .(.' j CONTENTS List of Participants 5 Introduction . 9 First item of the Agenda "The Relations between the West and the Communist Countries" Summary of and introduction to German working paper 13 Discussion . • . 22 Second item of the Agenda "Internationalization of Business" Summary of and introduction to American working paper 35 Summary of and introduction to French working paper. 40 Summary of and introduction to French memorandum . 46 Discussion . 48 Annex Discussion on "American balance of payments" 59 • LIST OF PARTICIPANTS CHAIRMAN: H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF THE NETHERLANDS HONORARY SECRETARY GENERAL FOR EUROPE: ERNST H. VAN DER BEUGEL HONORARY SECRETARY GENERAL FOR THE UNITED STATES: JOSEPH E. JOHNSON DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL FOR EUROPE: Arnold T. LAMPING OBSERVER: H.R.H. PRINCESS BEATRIX OF THE NETHERLANDS AGNELLI, UMBERTO ITALY ALLARD, jEAN v. CANADA BAHR, EGON GERMANY BALL, GEORGE w. UNITED STATES BAUMGARTNER, WILFRID S. FRANCE BEATON, LEONARD CANADA BELANGER, MICHEL CANADA BENEDIKTSSON, BJARNI leELAND BENNETT, SIR FREDERIC UNITED KINGDOM BERG, FRITZ GERMANY BIESHEUVEL, BAREND W. NETHERLANDS BIRGI, M. NuRI TURKEY BIRRENBACH, KURT GERMANY BOOTH, ALAN R. INTERNATIONAL BRIDGEMAN, SIR MAURICE R. UNITED KINGDOM BRZEZINSKI, ZBIGNIEW UNITED STATES 5 BucHAN, THE HoN. ALASTAIR F. INTERNATIONAL PARIZEAU, JACQUES CANADA CAMU, Lours BELGIUM PEARSON, LESTER B. CANADA CHAMBERS, SIR PAUL UNITED KINGDOM PECCEI, AURELIO ITALY COLLADO, EMILIO G. UNITED STATES PERKINS, ]AMES A. UNITED STATES DEAN, ARTHUR H. UNITED STATES PIRELLI, LEOPOLDO ITALY DEMING, FREDERICK L. UNITED STATES POWELL, J. ENOCH UNITED KINGDOM DILLON, C. DOUGLAS UNITED STATES RAsMINSKY, Lours CANADA DODGE, WILLIAM CANADA RITCHIE, RONALD S. CANADA FoRD II, HENRY UNITED STATES ROCKEFELLER, DAVID UNITED STATES FOUCHIER, JACQUES DE FRANCE RoNCHEY, ALBERTO ITALY GATES JR., THOMAS S. UNITED STATES ROTHSCHILD, BARON EDMOND DE FRANCE GRIFFIN, ANTHONY G. s. CANADA RYAN, CLAUDE CANADA HARTUNG, HENRI FRANCE RYAN, JOHN T. UNITED STATES HAUGE, GABRIEL UNITED STATES SANDBERG, HERMAN W. NETHERLANDS HEINZ II, HENRY J. UNITED STATES SHONFIELD, ANDREW A. UNITED KINGDOM H121EGH, LEIF NORWAY SNOY ET D'0PPUERS, BARON BELGIUM HOLMES, JOHN W. CANADA SOLVAY, JACQUES E. BELGIUM JACKSON, HENRY M. UNITED STATES S0RENSEN, SVEND 0. DENMARK KARSTEN, CHRISTIAN F. NETHERLANDS SPETHMANN, DIETER GERMANY KEENER,]. WARD UNITED STATES SPINELLI, ALTIERO ITALY Kurn, PIETER NETHERLANDS STILLE, UGo ITALY LAMBERT, ALLEN T. CANADA STONE, SHEPARD UNITED STATES LENDVAI, p AUL AUSTRIA TAVERNE, DrcK UNITED KINGDOM LOWENTHAL, RICHARD GERMANY TERKELSEN, TERKEL M. DENMARK LUNDVALL, D. BJORN H. SWEDEN THORNBROUGH, ALBERT A. CANADA LUNS, JOSEPH M. A. H. NETHERLANDS TmEMAND, OTTO G. NORWAY MARTIN, PAUL CANADA TRUDEAU, PIERRE E. CANADA MATHIAS, CHARLES McC. UNITED STATES TtiRKMEN, ILTER TURKEY McLEAN, WILLIAM F. CANADA UMBRIGHT, VICTOR D. SWITZERLAND McNAMARA, RoBERT S. INTERNATIONAL VERNON, RAYMOND UNITED STATES MENDES-FRANCE, PIERRE FRANCE VISSER 'T HooFT, WILLEM A. INTERNATIONAL MoMMER, KARL GERMANY WOLFF VON AMERONGEN, OTTO GERMANY MOYERS, BILL D. UNITED STATES MURPHY, ROBERT D. UNITED STATES IN ATTENDANCE: NETHERLANDS, H. R.H. PRINCE CLAUS OF THE NETHERLANDS RoY, BERTIE LE NETHERLANDS NIARCHOS, STAVROS S. INTERNATIONAL THILLAYE, BERNARD C. CANADA NOGUEIRA, ALBERTO F. PORTUGAL VERNEDE, EDWIN NETHERLANDS NYKOPP, JOHAN A. FINLAND OLIVETTI, ROBERTO ITALY OPPENHEIM, SIR DUNCAN M. UNITED KINGDOM 6 7 ... " INTRODUCTION The seventeenth Bilderberg Meeting was held at the Lodge at Mont Trem blant (Canada) on 26, 27 and 28 April 1968 under the chairmanship of H.R.H. The Prince of the Netherlands. There were 87 participants from the United States, Canada and fifteen Western European countries as well as from various international organiza tions. They consisted of members of governments, politicians, prominent businessmen, representatives of employers' organizations and trade unions, journalists, leading national and international civil servants and important figures in other fields. In accordance with the rules adopted at each meeting, all participants spoke in a purely personal capacity without in any way committing whatever government or organization to which they might belong. In order to enable participants to speak with the greatest possible frankness, the discussions were confidential, the press not being admitted. The Agenda was as follows: I. The Relations between the West and the Communist Countries. II. Internationalization of Business. 9 .. THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE WEST AND THE COMMUNIST COUNTRIES H.R.H. The Prince of the Netherlands opened the meeting and recalled the Bilder berg rules of procedure. The Prince expressed the hope that all partici pants from both sides of the Atlantic, the many newcomers certainly not excepted, would take an active part in the discussion. In the Prince's opinion, a frank exchange of views would be particularly valuable in the present political circumstances, even if the prospects for European integration did not appear very encouraging. * * * The background for discussion of this item of the Agenda consisted of a paper prepared by a German participant which was distributed before the meeting. SUMMARY OF AND INTRODUCTION TO GERMAN WORKING PAPER The author of this paper began by noting that for more than a decade relations between the Western powers and the Soviet bloc had been charac terized by the development oflimited but important elements of co-operation along with the persistence of overriding conflict. The conflict found expression in the competitive development of armaments, in the continuing military confrontation of the rival alliances in Europe, in the expansion of Soviet influence in the Middle East, etc. At the same time, elements of East-West co-operation had· developed both from the recognition of certain common interests by the two "bloc leaders", specifically in avoiding a nuclear world war and, more generally, in limiting the risks and burdens of their conflict, as well as from the increasing tendency of the other members of both blocs to pursue their individual national interests independently. It was evident that in such a protracted conflict, periods of growing tension were followed by periods of detente. The climate of detente, since the early sixties, had encouraged the growth of new elements of co-operation across the 13 bloc lines, and had led to a marked loosening up of the formerly rigid political solving the outstanding issues of the East-West conflict in Europe and by the fronts. Yet in the absence of serious efforts to negotiate solutions for the main growth of a competition between the leading Western powers for improving issues in the conflict, new developments in Viet-Nam, in the Middle East and their relations with Moscow by separate negotiations. Disagreements on the Mediterranean and in the arms race had undermined that climate. Just as conduct of diplomacy towards Russia, on atomic non-proliferation, on Viet "peaceful co-existence'', in official Soviet terminology, had come to mean Nam and on the Common Market had become much more prominent among the no more than the absence of nuclear world war, so "detente'', in Western NATO members than their common policies; and the growth of influential diplomatic terminology, had become depreciated to mean little more than the anti-NATO currents was discernible in most of them. absence of an all-out confrontation between the super-powers or of an acute 3. The net effect of these developments was that the Soviet bloc had re crisis involving the two blocs as a whole. covered the political initiative in Europe, largely because it had consistently The author noted that his paper confined itself to relations between the given priority to this theatre over other interests. It was Soviet proposals for a Western powers and the states of the European Soviet bloc. European security system to replace NATO and the Warsaw Pact, or for some Three major shifts in East-West relations had occurred since the beginning form of revival of the Potsdam agreement for the control of Germany, that of the latest detente. The first concerned the relation of the military potential formed the main material for diplomatic discussion in allied and neutral of both sides; the second concerned the relative political cohesion of NATO European capitals. It was Soviet moves in the Middle East and the Mediter and the Warsaw Pact; the third concerned the diplomatic initiative in Europe. ranean and Soviet warnings on Berlin that determined Western expectations 1. The detente had been largely the product of American military superi about possible future crises. For the Soviets were, consciously and consistently, ority, both in nuclear striking power and in the mobility of conventional using the detente to promote their solution of the conflict. forces. While American superiority in the strategic nuclear field still existed, The two basic goals of Soviet policy in Europe had remained unchanged this had tended in recent years to be reduced as a result of both the growth of for many years. They were the consolidation of the Soviet power sphere Soviet rocket forces and the installation of ABM's in Russia. The continuing including the universal acceptance of the present East German regime as world-wide mobility of American conventional