Office of the Historian

740.00119 E.W./10–645

Memorandum by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee

SM–3643
Washington, 4 October, 1945.
1.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff have considered SWNCC 155/171 and their comments are as follows:
a.
They withhold comment on the matter contained in the conclusions and discussion of the paper, particularly on the recommendation concerning a strong U.S. Military Mission to Italy, since their comments on this part of the paper do not appear to be required at this time.
b.
As to naval clauses, from the military point of view it is considered that all Italian submarines should be destroyed and that in the neighborhood of one third of the present Italian fleet should be returned to Italian control. The remainder should be scrapped.
2.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff recognize that political considerations may override the military view concerning the disposition of the Navy, which is expressed above.
3.
Subject to the above comment, the Joint Chiefs of Staff find no objection from a military point of view to the proposed military, naval and air clauses contained in Appendix “B” of SWNCC 155/1.
For the Joint Chiefs of Staff:
A. J. McFarland
,
Brigadier General, U.S.A.,
Secretary.
  1. See Report on Military, Naval, and Air Clauses of the Treaty of Peace with Italy by an Ad Hoc Committee of the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee, p. 1034. This report was an enclosure to SWNCC 155/1 dated September 6, 1945.↩