811.2340/2–1847
The Secretary of War (Patterson) to the Secretary of State
Dear Mr. Secretary: Present War Department plans contemplate a deployment of Air Force units in Europe which will total 38,000 personnel on 1 July 1947. General McNarney has stated that from a purely military standpoint the requirement for the air support of occupation forces in Europe is one fighter group and two troop carrier squadrons with ancillary units, totalling 7,500 personnel. General Spaatz concurs in General McNarney’s analysis, but desires to retain a total air strength of personnel varying from 8,000 to 12,000 in order to permit a degree of flexibility in the rotation of tactical, including VHB units, from the United States to Europe for short training periods.
The present deployment of 38,000 personnel has been maintained to date primarily because of the desire of Mr. Byrnes that it not be [Page 171] reduced.31 The War Department recognizes the State Department’s position to date on this matter as to the political advisability of obvious reductions in our Air Force in Europe during the period of the recent conferences. The War Department also recognizes that the State Department may have a similar point applicable to the Moscow Conference. However, the current pressure for economy, both in money and manpower, the unsatisfactory operational state of the air units in Europe, and the grave difficulties being experienced in keeping air units in anything approaching a satisfactory operational state, even in the United States, make it extremely desirable from the military point of view that Air Forces in Europe be reduced in the near future toward the level indicated in the preceding paragraph.
It is requested that you review the situation outlined in this letter and provide the War Department with your views as to the practicability of reducing deployment of Air Forces in Europe in the near future. In case you feel, from a political standpoint, that immediate reduction is undesirable, it would be most helpful if you would furnish your views as to when reduction could be accomplished in order that plans may be prepared to use the limited resources in the most efficient and economical manner.
Sincerely yours,
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A memorandum by John D. Hickerson, dated February 25, 1947, addressed to the Secretary of State and the Under Secretary, not printed, stated the following:
↩“Last Autumn the War Department discussed informally with the State Department a proposal to reduce materially U.S. Army Air Force personnel in Germany. Mr. Byrnes at that time was in Paris. The matter was discussed with him there, and he urged strongly against the proposed reduction at that time. Mr. Byrnes felt that the reduction would have unfortunate political repercussions, since it would give the impression that the United States was pulling out of Europe.” (811.2340/2–2547)