Stalin Note

The Stalin Note, also known as the March Note, was a document delivered to the representatives of the Western allied powers (UK, France, and the United States) from the Soviet Occupation in Germany on March 10, 1952. Soviet leader Stalin put forth a proposal for a reunification and neutralization of Germany, with no conditions on economic policies and with guarantees for "the rights of man and basic freedoms, including freedom of speech, press, religious persuasion, political conviction, and assembly" and free activity of democratic parties and organizations.

James Warburg, member of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, testified before the committee on March 28, 1952 and observed that the Soviet proposal might be a bluff, but it seemed "that our government is afraid to call the bluff for the fear that it may not be a bluff at all" and might lead to "a free, neutral, and demilitarized Germany," which might be "subverted into Soviet orbit". This led to an exchange of notes between the Western allies and the Soviet Union, which eventually ended after the Western allies insistence that a unified Germany should be free to join the EDC and be rearmed, a demand which Stalin rejected as only a few years had passed since Germany alone had caused unprecedented destruction and loss of life in the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War.

Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and the Western allies at the time saw Stalin's move as an aggressive action that attempted to stall the reintegration of West Germany, however, afterwards debates have flared up on whether a chance for reunification had been missed. Six years after the exchange, two German ministers, Thomas Dehler and Gustav Heinemann, blamed Chancellor Adenauer for not having explored the chance of reunification. One notable scholar, Noam Chomsky, interprets Stalin's offer as trying to reduce the threat of a confrontation with the United States, and that the Western rejection was due to the principles put forward in the NSC-68, which shaped a US foreign policy that emphasized military over diplomatic action.