Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, General; the United Nations, Volume I, Part 1

IO Files: SD/A/C.1/176

Position Paper Prepared in the Department of State

confidential

[Washington,] September 1, 1948.

Withdrawal of Troops From Territories of Other Member Nations

the problem

The General Assembly on December 14, 1946 adopted a resolution on “Principles Governing the General Regulations and Reduction of Armaments” (A/267), paragraph 7 of which provided in part: “It (the General Assembly) Recommends the Members to undertake … the withdrawal without delay of armed forces stationed in the territories of Members without their consent freely and publicly expressed in treaties or agreements consistent with the Charter and not contradicting international agreements; …”¹ In the forthcoming session of the General Assembly there may arise the question of the extent to which this recommendation has been carried out by the Members.

recommendations

1. If any complaint should be made to the General Assembly that the United States has failed to comply with the resolution quoted above, the United States delegation should make an appropriate reply on the basis of the latest information furnished to it. (See comment below.) In its discretion, the delegation may include in its reply a statement to the effect that United States forces have been stationed in territories of Member Nations only with the freely given consent of such Members, that following the adoption of the resolution of December 14, 1946 the United States took prompt steps to comply with the provisions of paragraph 7 quoted above, and that in no case do United States forces stationed abroad constitute a threat to peace and security.

2. The United States delegation should not oppose any reasonable proposal that the General Assembly attempt either to ascertain the extent to which Members generally have complied with the resolution or to determine the need for further action by the General Assembly on the same subject. However, it should not take the initiative in proposing such action.

3. If any complaint should be made to the General Assembly alleging failure by any Member other than the United States to comply with the resolution, the United States delegation should ascertain the validity of such complaint and be guided accordingly, consulting the Department if necessary.

4. If any proposal should be made that the General Assembly condemn generally the presence of troops on foreign soil in time of peace the United States delegation should oppose it on the ground that the portion of the resolution of December 14, 1946 quoted above clearly implied that the United Nations had no objection to the stationing of a Member’s forces in the territory of another Member when authorized by “treaties or agreements consistent with the Charter and not contradicting international agreements.” The United States delegation should also oppose any attempt to place additional restrictions upon such stationing of forces.

discussion

The General Assembly of the United Nations on December 14, 1946 passed by acclamation a resolution on the Principles Governing the General Regulation and Reduction of Armaments (A/267) which contained the paragraph quoted above in the statement of the problem.

The inclusion of that paragraph in the resolution was the outgrowth of an Egyptian proposal to add a somewhat similar provision to a resolution calling for certain information about the armed forces of Member States on foreign territory which the Soviet Government introduced first in the Security Council later in the General Assembly in the hope that it would prove embarrassing to the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom. The Soviet proposal was introduced in the Security Council, on August 29, 1946 (S/144) but after debate a majority of the members of that body voted not to place the matter on the Council’s agenda. The Soviet Government then introduced a similar resolution in the General Assembly, but that body adopted in place of it the part of the reduction of armaments resolution quoted above and a resolution (A/269) calling upon the Security Council to determine, as soon as possible, the information which United Nations Members should be called upon to furnish in order to give effect to the regulation of armaments resolution.

It will be noted that the General assembly, by its adoption of the resolution paragraph quoted above, gave its sanction to the stationing of armed forces of one United Nations Member in the territories of other United Nations Members in the circumstances stated.

Secretary Byrnes included in his address of December 13, 1946, in the General Assembly² a summary of the US Armed forces then outside U.S. territory. No similar statement has since been made.

No questions have been raised in the Assembly concerning the compliance of Member States with the provisions of the paragraph quoted in the statement of the problem.

The approval on May 27, 1947, of SWNCC 219/16³ gave interdepartmental approval to a recommendation which had paginated in the State Department that in each case where all of the uniformed members of the U.S. Armed Forces on the territory of another United Nations Member State (other than members of Military, Naval, or Air Attachés’ offices) are not covered by a published agreement, arrangements should be made for the negotiation of an exchange of notes between the United States and the other government concerned, or, where this may be impracticable, the conclusion of a joint communiqué, or if neither of these steps appears feasible, the possibility should be explored of satisfying in some other manner the requirements of the resolution.

Any treaty, agreement, exchange of notes, or the like, which is available to the public in printed form (that is true of every instrument designated by a T.S., E.A.S., or T.I.A.S. number), or which has been filed or registered with the League of Nations or with the United Nations (see Article 102 of the United Nations Charter and the General Assembly Resolution of December 14, 1946, on the registration and publication of agreements), is considered to have been made public.

There now remain only a few cases in which the presence of personnel of the U.S. Armed Forces on the territory of another United Nations Member is not covered by the Member’s consent expressed in a manner which meets the requirements of the paragraph of the General Assembly Resolution of December 14, 1946, quoted in the statement of the problem, No attempt is being made to obtain agreements covering very small contingents of such personnel on missions of an obviously temporary nature, such, for example, as grave registration units, and groups which are conducting negotiations. The Department is of the opinion that the resolution was not directed at situations of that sort. The U.S. Delegation to the General Assembly will be furnished with a summary of the latest available information regarding personnel of the U.S. Armed Forces on the territory of other United Nations Members and the status of covering agreement or negotiations.

1. For full text, see Foreign Relations, 1946, vol. i, p. 1101.
2. For text, see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, First Session, Second Part, Plenary Meetings, pp. 1289–1296.
3. For text, see Foreign Relations, 1947, vol. i, p. 433.