There is enclosed, for the consideration of Council members, a suggested
revision of paragraphs 8 to 14 inclusive of NSC–9. The revision, reduced to three paragraphs, 8 to 10
inclusive, involves little change in substance.1
There also is enclosed, for the information of Council members, a
paraphrase of a recent telegram from Mr. Bevin2 which contains his views on
the problem.
[Enclosure]
Suggested Substitute Paragraphs to Replace
Paragraphs 8 to 14 Inclusive in
NSC–9
8. Strong bipartisan approval of the course of action outlined in the
following paragraphs would be indicated by the inclusion in a Senate
resolution, which could be reported to the Senate by the Foreign
Relations Committee, of an expression of the sense of the Senate
that:
- “(1) measures to strengthen the United Nations and
increase the security of the free nations should include
the progressive development of regional arrangements for
the maintenance of international peace and security as
provided for in the Charter,
- (2) the United States is prepared to consider
association, on the basis of self-help and mutual aid,
with such regional arrangements as affect its national
security.”
9. The President subsequently would announce, with reference to the
resolution and to the paramount effect of the security of the North
Atlantic area upon the national security of the United States, 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. (Owing to the comparatively short time left
before adjournment of the present Session of Congress, it will not
be possible to present such an agreement for ratification until next
session).
He would state the United States conception of such an agreement as
being that:
- (1)
- it should be within the framework of the Charter and
specifically designed to strengthen the United Nations by
being based: (a) on effective
collective measures to prevent and remove threats to the
peace and to bring about settlement of international
disputes by peaceful means (Article 1); (b) on the obligation to refrain in international
relations from the threat or use of force against the
territorial integrity
[Page 102]
or political independence of any State
(Article 2); and, (c) on the inherent
right of individual or collective self-defense against armed
attack (Article 51);
- (2)
- it should be based upon self-help and mutual aid;
- (3)
- it should be designed to strengthen the determination of
free nations resolutely and collectively to resist
aggression and to increase their ability to do so;
- (4)
- it should generally follow the basic lines of the Treaty
of Rio de Janeiro in providing that an armed attack upon any
party would be considered an armed attack against
all;
- (5)
- each Party should determine for itself whether an act of
aggression has occurred and the measures it would
individually take pending agreement on collective measures,
and
- (6)
- it would provide for consultation whenever any Party
considered that its political independence or territorial
integrity was threatened, or whenever any Party considered
that any action or policy of any nation, whether or not a
Party to the Agreement, constituted a threat to the
peace.
In his declaration the President would include a statement that the
Five-Power Treaty also affected our national security and that, in
the light of the obligations for mutual aid and self-help already
assumed by its signatories, and pending the conclusion of the
Defense Agreement, an armed attack in the North Atlantic area
against a signatory of the Five-Power Treaty would be regarded as an
armed attack against the United States to be dealt with by the
United States under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. The
United States would determine for itself whether such an armed
attack had occurred, and, pending agreement upon collective defense
measures, the immediate measures which it would take individually.
The declaration would refer to the desirability of additional free
nations in Western Europe adhering to the Five-Power Treaty and
state that the United States would be disposed to extend similar
support to such nations which did so. It would be so phrased as to
avoid inviting aggression against any other free country in
Europe.
The President would include an expression of willingness to
participate in military conversations with the Parties to the Treaty
with a view to strengthening collective security through
coordinating military production and supply.
10. Simultaneously with this declaration an Anglo-American
declaration to be made to the effect that, pending the possible
negotiation of some general Middle Eastern security system, the two
Governments consider that an armed attack on Greece, Turkey or Iran
would affect their own national security and consequently would
bring immediately into effect, so far as the two Governments were
concerned, the obligations imposed by the Charter of the United
Nations for the maintenance of international peace and security and
the right of collective self-defense provided by Article 51.
[Page 103]
If the actions recommended above are approved, diplomatic approaches
must be made between the time the resolution is introduced and the
date of the President’s declaration: (1) to the signatories of the
Five-Power Treaty concerning adherence of additional States to it,
(2) to the governments listed in paragraph 9 above concerning the
proposed North Atlantic agreement and, in the cases of Norway,
Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Italy, concerning adherence to the
Five-Power Treaty, and (3) to the British Government concerning the
declaration recommended in paragraph 10 above.
