741.90F/11–848
The Acting Secretary of State to the Secretary of Defense (Forrestal)
Dear Mr. Secretary: Your letter of November 8th has been received setting forth further conclusions of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as to action which should be taken in Saudi Arabia to improve the strategic position of the United States. I note with interest their opinion that our world-wide strategic position would be greatly improved if the means could be developed to defend successfully, and to conduct sustained air operations from Dhahran Air Base, and that an initial step in achieving this ultimate objective would be to introduce into the area at the earliest feasible moment additional U.S. military personnel, possibly by expanding the Air Force Training Mission. Also, that the Joint Chiefs of Staff consider that an approach should be made to the Saudi Arabian Government at the earliest possible moment consistent with diplomatic considerations in order to obtain its consent to such an expansion of the Air Force Training Mission.
As you are aware, the agreement between this Government and the Saudi Arabian Government covering our rights at the Dhahran Airport expires on March 15, 1949. The Department of State now plans to bring up the question of extending this agreement the latter part of November or early in December.
It is the desire of this Department to have our Minister to Saudi Arabia, Mr. J. Rives Childs, who will conduct the negotiations with King Ibn Saud, as fully informed as possible regarding this problem. Thanks to your letters to me dated August 16th1 and November 8th of this year, it is possible to inform Minister Childs of the position of the National Military Establishment regarding its interest in the Arabian Peninsula as a whole and in the Dhahran Air Base in particular.
Incidentally, I should like to point out that civil aviation rights are now contained in the Air Base Agreement, as amended by an exchange of notes dated December 20, 1945 and January 2, 1946,2 respectively. While as a general policy civil and military rights should be contained in separate agreements, it may be that such a course of action will not prove practical in this case. It is our intention to instruct Minister Childs to remind King Ibn Saud of the continued interest of the United States, first expressed in 1945, in concluding a Civil Air Agreement. However, should the Government of Saudi Arabia not be prepared to conclude a Civil Agreement at this time it would be [Page 256] satisfactory if the present civil air provisions of the Air Base Agreement are extended for a reasonable period of time.
It may well be that King Ibn Saud will wish to bargain in regard to an extension of this agreement. If this happens, the answers to various questions such as the following, should be known in advance: (1) Is the extension sufficiently important to justify the expenditure of additional sums by the Air Force on the development of this base, and if so how much might those sums be? (2) How long an extension would be required in order to justify such expenditures? (3) Is the National Military Establishment prepared, provided the embargo against shipments of arms to the Near East is lifted, to supply the Government of Saudi Arabia with arms and other military equipment? King Ibn Saud has made repeated requests to this Government for equipment for his Army and it is believed that he may repeat his request as a bargaining weapon when we discuss air base renewal with him. (4) How large an expansion of the Air Force Training Mission, mentioned in your letter of November 8th, might be undertaken at Dhahran? (5) Would the National Military Establishment be prepared to extend the scope of the training provided Saudi Arabia to include instruction in fields other than aviation?
Because the answers to these and similar questions may well require time to prepare, I hope it will be possible to have the benefit of your conclusions in time for them to be made available to the American Minister in Saudi Arabia at the earliest practicable date. As suggested in the fourth paragraph of your letter of November 8th, the Department of State would welcome the immediate assignment of a representative of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to participate regularly in further planning on this subject.3
Sincerely yours,
- Not printed, but see footnote 1, p. 244.↩
- Neither printed, but for summaries, see bracketed notes, Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. viii, pp. 983, 997.↩
- On December 21, the Secretary of Defense informed the Secretary of State that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had designated Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, as their executive agent for matters concerning the extension of the Dharan Air Base Agreement. Gen. Vandenberg then designated Col. Howard Moore, USAF, to discuss with the Department of State further planing in regard to this matter, as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff views with respect to the questions contained in this letter of November 19. (Information supplied by the Department of Defense.)↩