i SECRET DEPARTMENT OF STATE Memorandum ol Conversation January 26 1968 Time 4 30 pm Pl ace Assistant Secretary's Office D A T E Danish Government Reques t for Public I nformation on Thule Flights SU BJECT PARTICIPANTS Ambassador Torben R nne '° Embassy of Denmark g Mr Johannes F ns Buhl Second Secret ary Embassy of Denmark ' Assis t ant Secretary John M I eddy EUR Mr David H McKillop Country Director SCAN Mr Eugene Klebenov Country Desk Officer SCAN 0 z r 0 I -0 u G PM EUR EUR SCAN DOD ISA OSD Amembassy COPENHAGEN 0 J1 CY 2 - r 7 Ambassador R nne opened the meeting by stat ing that Act ing Prime Mini ster Krag had he l d a meeting earlier in the day with the chairmen of the Danish political parties He sai d that a meeting of t he Connnittee on Foreign Relations had been scheduled for January 24 but had been canceled because the January 23 elections had caused many connnittee members t o be out of Copenhagen on the 24tho Dr Fischer Secretary General of the Foreign Office had subsequently proposed a meeting of the Acting Prime Mini ster the Act ing Foreign Minis t er and the Act ing Defense Minister with the party chairmen Acting Minister for Greenland Affairs Jensen also attended Ambassador R¢nne said that Ac t ing Forei gn Minister Tabor had gi ven t he chairmen all the information that he had on the B-52 crash at Thule starting with t he January 21 notification and carrying on to the latest information received Ambassador·R nne said that because of the present uncertain political situation the party chairmen were reluctant to make comments on the matter now All of the chairmen however expressed the need for det ailed information from the U S Krag had ended t he meeting by stating t hat if the information r e ceived f rom Washington were not sufficient and sat isfactory he would send the Acting Foreign Minister to Washington F O RM Ambassador R¢nne said that Krag's statement underscored the high degree of c oncern among the Danes The Ambassador said that when h e spoke wit h Dr Fische r he had asked if the public concern in Denmark DS-1254 3 N 3 JAN1968 __s is - 3 • 61 'O 0 p L vi 0 c s G v - - COPIES TO M c on this SECRET DECLASSIFIED Authority b N ft b9 JC 0 '- '- LA _J SECRET -2- on this matter had abated Dr Fischer replied that on the contrary concern was growing Ambassador R nne said that what was needed was a small bit of information daily Mr Leddy suggested that with 40 journalists now at Thule the flow of information should increase As an example of the sort of announcement needed assador R nne proposed a statement to the effect that there had been no B-52s in Greenland since the crash or that those B-52s reportedly seen by Danes in Greenland had non-nuclear functions Ambassador Rpnne said that Dr Fischer had stressed the need for a response to the request made two days earlier and had said that such a response is in the conunon interest of our two countries Dr Fischer had also pointed out that the Danish question was not a difficult one that there are worse questions that might have been asked Dr Fischer had ended his conversation by stating that if the U S can't or won't answer or if the U S answer is unsatisfactory the incoming Government of Denmark will have to consider taking very serious steps In answer to Mr Leddy's question the Ambassador said that he did not know when the new Government would be formed He thought January 28 was the earliest possible date for a new government He thought it likely that there would be a three-party government The King he said had asked Radical Liberal Party spokesman Baunsgaard to form a government There are he noted problems regarding cooperation between the Radical Liberals and the Conservatives The Ambassador thought that there were two possible ways for a Baunsgaard government One was a three-party majority government Radical Liberals-Conservatives-Moderate Liberals The second possibility was that of a minority government of the Moderate Liberals and the Radical Liberals which would govern with Conservative support Ambassador R nne explained that Baunsgaard had been asked to form a government because of the large gains scored by his party The Ambassador added that he doubted that the choice of a new government would influence the matter under discussion between our two Governments Mr 1'addy asked if the Ambassador could meet with him at noon on January 27 Ambassador R nne said that he would be able to attend such a meeting and that he would call Copenhagen He again stressed that his Government's need was only for a small amount of public information daily He said such information was needed to stop the speculation then going on in Denmark He added that he hoped not to be instructed to go higher in the Department that we should be able to settle the matter without going to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs Ml Leddy agreed and pointed out that Mr Rostow was very busy at the moment with the USS Pueblo seizure Ambassador Rpnne said that the essential information needed was a statement on B-52s in Greenland both before and after the crash with a description of their non-nuclear purpose He said that 1 000 Danes in Thule have seen these planes The Ambassador asked if we couldn't say they were radar planes or in some other way demonstrate that there were no atomic weapons connected with the operation of Thule SECRET