A draft of this kind is attached. It has not yet been discussed with the Commanders in Chief. I intend to do this only after this draft in its fundamental ideas has been approved by you my Fuehrer, so that it can then be resubmitted to be signed.
Heil, my Fuehrer
[signed] Keitel
L Ia to No. 38/38 S.O. Only
written by an officer
MOST SECRET
S.O. Only
access only through officer
Berlin, 20 May 1938
DRAFT for THE NEW DIRECTIVE "GRUEN"
3 Copies
1st Copy
(Provisional)-[pencil note]
1. Political Prerequisites: It is not my intention to smash Czechoslovakia without provocation, in the near future through military action. Therefore inevitable political developments within Czechoslovakia must force the issue, or political events in Europe create an especially favorable opportunity and one which may never come again.
2. Political Possibilities for the Commencement of the Action: An invasion without suitable obvious cause and without sufficient political justification cannot be considered with reference to the possible consequences of such an action in the present situation.
Rather will the action be initiated either:
a. after a period of increasing diplomatic clashes and tension, which is coupled with military preparations and is made use of to push the war-guilt onto the enemy. Even such a period of tension preceding the war however will terminate in sudden military action on our part, which must come with all possible surprise as to time and extent, or
b. by lightning-swift action as a result of a serious incident, through which Germany is provoked in an unbearable way and for which at least part of the world opinion will grant the moral justification of military action.
"b" is militarily and politically the more favorable.