Laughter Under the Chandeliers

In Paris last week, the horsetrading began.

As everyone had expected, Andrei Vishinsky turned down the West's proposal for a Germany united on the basis of the Bonn constitution. He took two days and a lot of his beloved Russian proverbs to do it. Britain's Ernie Bevin grunted impatiently as Vishinsky hammered away: France's Robert Schuman fidgeted in his chair. But Dean Acheson, knowing that Vishinsky was talking--and had to talk--for the record, coolly waited till the Russian had run down. Then he submitted a proposal for settling the Berlin dispute.

Acheson, who has a keener sense for conference table tactics than either George Marshall or James Byrnes, frankly stated the U.S. position: "We are in Berlin by virtue of international agreements...but more fundamentally we are there on account of power and force and the successful prosecution of the war...We are in Berlin not merely to administer the city but to be in Berlin..."

Acheson's proposition: 1) citywide free elections for a provisional Berlin government; 2) re-establishment of the four-power Kommandatura with each nation's veto power restricted to security matters only. When Acheson suggested that the ministers talk about it behind closed doors, Vishinsky agreed.

In the first secret session on Berlin, Vishinsky's manner was agreeable, and he seemed willing to discuss a compromise. On the second day, Vishinsky stiffened. He conceded four-power supervision of free elections for a municipal council, but he wanted to rob the council of all real power by putting it under the veto-bound four-power Kommandatura. By week's end, Vishinsky had conceded a slight limitation of the four powers' veto in the Kommandatura, but the West wanted to abolish the veto entirely, except for security matters, and leave the Berliners' own government wide powers to run its affairs.

Meanwhile, the conference had even achieved something approaching humor. Once, when the going got dreary, Bevin told his colleagues: "I feel like an orphan at the table. I am the only one here who wasn't brought up as a lawyer." When the lawyers tried to set an hour for the start of the secret meetings, Vishinsky said: "If we meet tomorrow at 3, I think I will have had enough sleep."

Bevin: "Mr. Vishinsky spends so much time looking up proverbs and quotations, I wonder he has any chance to sleep at all."

Vishinsky: "At least I never sleep at the conference table."

Bevin: "Some of my most restful sleeps have been at conference tables."

The ministers laughed so loud that the crystal chandeliers above the conference table tinkled musically. It was not really that funny, but the three lawyers and the orphan gratefully seized the opportunity to unbend.

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