Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, Western Europe, Volume III

Department of State Executive Secretariat Files¹

Report by the Executive Secretary of the National Security Council (Souers) to the Council ²

secret

Washington, April 13, 1948.

NSC 9

The Position of the United States With Respect to Support for Western Union and Other Related Free Countries

the problem

1. To assess and appraise the position of the United States with respect to support for Western Union and other related free countries.

analysis

2. Western Union, for the purposes of this paper, is the organization created by the treaty signed March 17, 1948, at Brussels which includes as charter members France, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

3. A course of action adequate to give effect to the declaration of March 17 by the President of support for the free nations of Europe will require the strongest bipartisan approval so that it will be a truly American policy.

4. The national security of the United States requires that our policy should be, in addition to strengthening the economy of the free nations through the European Recovery Program, to strengthen their determination to resist the aggression of Soviet-directed world Communism, to increase their confidence that they can successfully do so, and to deter the Soviet Union from attempting further aggression by confronting it with concrete evidence of determination to resist and with increasing organized force.

5. Fear of Soviet-Communist aggression is sufficiently strong that many of the free nations of Europe are willing to cooperate in close association, provided they are assured of military support by the United States.

6. This assurance should be given on a basis of reciprocal military undertakings which would predicate resolute action on their part, and which should take the form on our part of a firm commitment to extend military and other support (in the President’s words to Congress on March 17 “the support which the situation requires”) but leave maximum freedom of method compatible with effective assurance of reciprocal support from them.

conclusions

7. The United States should not now participate as a member in Western Union but should establish a relationship to it as set forth in the following paragraphs.

8. The Government of the United States, through diplomatic channels, should approach the signatories of the Five-Power Treaty signed at Brussels on March 17, 1948 with a view to ascertaining their views regarding the conclusion of a Collective Defense Agreement for the North Atlantic Area, the details of which are given in subsequent paragraphs, and to securing their approval to extension of the Five-Power Treaty in the manner outlined below.

9. After the approval of the Five-Power Group is obtained, an immediate approach should be made through diplomatic channels to Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland, and (if the results of the Italian elections are favorable) also to Italy, by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, with the consent of the Benelux countries, for the purpose of explaining to them the plan for a declaration by the President on the lines of that recommended in paragraph 10 below, and of ascertaining whether they would be prepared in such circumstances to accede to the Five-Power Treaty in the near future and to enter into negotiations for a North Atlantic Collective Defense Agreement.

10. The President then should make a statement which would include:

a. A declaration of American intention, in the light of the obligation assumed by the signatories of the Five-Power Treaty and pending the conclusion of a Defense Agreement, to regard any action in the North Atlantic Area which the United States considers an armed attack against a signatory of the Five-Power Treaty as an armed attack against the United States to be dealt with by the United States on the basis of Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. Pending agreement upon collective defense measures the United States would determine the immediate measures which it would take individually. The declaration should state that the United States would be disposed to extend similar support to any other free country in Western Europe which acceded to the Five-Power Treaty. If, as a result of the inquiries referred to in paragraph 9 above, it appears that Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Italy, or any of them, do not wish to accede to the Five-Power Treaty at this stage, consideration would need to be given, in the light of the views of each of the above States, to including in the President’s statement some assurance to them of immediate support in case of an armed attack against them which they resisted resolutely. In any event, the declaration should be so phrased as to avoid inviting aggression against any other free country in Europe.

b. An announcement that invitations had been issued to the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Eire, Italy and Portugal (provided that secret inquiries had established the fact that these countries would be prepared to accept the invitations) to take part in a conference with a view to the conclusion of a Collective Defense Agreement for the North Atlantic Area designed to give maximum effect, as between the parties, to the provisions of the United Nations Charter.

11. Simultaneously with the President’s declaration there should be an Anglo-American declaration to the effect that those two countries will not countenance any attack on the political independence or territorial integrity of Greece, Turkey, or Iran, and that in the event of such an attack and pending the possible negotiation of some general Middle Eastern security system they would feel bound to support these States.

12. The Defense Agreement referred to in paragraph 10 should contain the following main provisions:

a. A preamble which would combine some of the features of the preamble to the Five-Power Treaty and make clear that the main object of the instrument would be to preserve Western civilization in the geographical area covered by the agreement. The preamble also should refer to the desirability of the conclusion of further Defense Agreements under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations to the end that all free nations eventually would be covered by such agreements.

b. A provision that each party shall regard any action in the area covered by the Agreement which it considers an armed attack against any other party as an armed attack against itself and that each party accordingly undertakes to assist in meeting the attack in the exercise of the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter.

c. A provision following the lines of Article III, paragraph 2, of the Rio Treaty to the effect that, until the most effective means of extending joint aid had been agreed upon, each one of the parties shall determine the immediate measures which it will take individually in fulfillment of the obligation contained in the preceding paragraph and in accordance with the principle of mutual solidarity.

d. A provision to the effect that action taken under the Agreement shall, as provided in Article 51 of the Charter, be promptly reported to the Security Council and cease when the Security Council shall have taken the necessary steps to restore and maintain peace and security.

e. A delineation of the area covered by the Agreement to include: (1) the continental territory in Europe or North America of any party, (2) any territory in Europe occupied by the forces of any party, (3) the islands in the North Atlantic whether sovereign or belonging to any party, and (4) the waters of the North Atlantic and the air over them.

f. A provision for consultation between all the parties in the event that any party may consider that its territorial integrity or political independence is threatened by armed attack or indirect aggression in any part of the world.

g. A provision for the establishment of such agencies as may be necessary for effective implementation of the agreement, including the working out of plans for prompt and effective action under (b) and (c) above.

h. A suitable accession clause.

i. Duration of 10 years, with automatic renewal for five-year periods unless denounced.

13. When circumstances permit, other countries, such as Spain, Germany (or the Western Zones) and Austria (or the Western Zones), which logically might belong in the Five-Power Treaty Group or in the North Atlantic Area, should be invited to adhere to the Five-Power Treaty and to the Defense Agreement.

14. Military conversations should be initiated in the immediate future with parties to the Five-Power Treaty, with a view initially to strengthening the collective security through coordinating military production and supply.

1. Material retired by the Executive Secretariat of the Department of State, including documentation prepared by the National Security Council, which is located in lot files 58D231, 61D167, 62D1, 63D351 and 66D95.
2. This report, based substantially on Policy Planning Staff paper PPS 27/1 of April 6 described p. 78, footnote 1, was approved by representatives of the Departments of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force and of the National Security Resources Board prior to April 13 (note by James S. Lay, Jr., Acting Executive Secretary of the Council, April 13, 1948, not printed, Executive Secretariat files).