501.AD/11–2946
Memorandum by the Attorney-General (Clark) to President Truman
You have requested my informal views regarding the proposal to transfer to the United Nations the army reservation known as The Presidio of San Francisco, for use as a permanent headquarters by the United Nations.
The Presidio is located on San Francisco Bay in the City and County of San Francisco, embracing some 1,400 acres. The original reservation was set apart from the public domain by Executive order dated November 6, 1850, and the United States has exclusive jurisdiction over it.
The Constitution provides in Article IV, Section 3, that “the Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States. … This provision has been uniformly interpreted as giving the Congress plenary and exclusive power over the disposition of the real property of the United States. 22 Op. A.G. 546: 14 Peters 538.
There is no general statute authorizing the sale or other disposition of army reservations of the character of The Presidio. It has been suggested, however, that sufficient statutory authority in the present situation may be found in the Surplus Property Act of 1944, and that any army post “which has been determined to be surplus to the needs and responsibilities” of the War Department can be disposed of as surplus property. But even if The Presidio, as a matter of law, is subject to disposal under the Surplus Property Act, a question concerning which I have some doubt, the problem still remains of determining whether or not it is in fact surplus. Whether or not such a determination can properly be made is, of course, primarily the responsibility of the Secretary of War. I should assume, however, that additional facilities would have to be established, and appropriated for, to replace The Presidio (which is the site of the Letterman General Hospital) in the [Page 110] event that it is given up by the Army. This would, of course, be a matter to be passed upon ultimately by the Congress.
Without indicating any final view as to the applicability of the Surplus Property Act to the present circumstances, I should like to point out that the entire problem of providing a site for the United Nations will no doubt at some stage have to be considered and implemented by the Congress. If the Congress should not agree with the proposed transfer of The Presidio, it would be within its power to render the transaction largely nugatory, as by imposing conditions upon appropriations made for the benefit of the United Nations. I would suggest, therefore, that the transfer be made contingent upon approval by the Congress. Perhaps it would be possible to obtain the informal consent of congressional leaders, thus enabling you to announce that there was no doubt in your mind that the transfer would promptly be completed by joint action of the Executive and the Congress.
I am taking the liberty of sending a copy of this memorandum to the acting Secretary of State.
Respectfully,