840.20/8–3049: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Embassy in the United Kingdom
3143. Agreement has been reached in Working Group that no political bodies other than Council should be formally established under Atlantic Pact at this time. (Reurtel 3452, Aug 301) Informal political contact on treaty matters, between Council sessions, will be [Page 322] maintained through Embs here. Defense Comte consisting of Defense Ministers, or persons of suitable authority representing them, expected convene here about Oct 5. Brit, Fr and other reps in general agreement with us concerning organizational details.
Kibler fully cognizant US thinking concerning military side of organization. Principal point of difference with Brit (and to some extent Continentals) concerns US membership in three regional planning groups. Brit and Continentals seek full US membership on three European regional planning groups. JCS position approved Aug 19 is: “Problem of extent of US participation in Western European Regional Planning Group (or in WU) is very complex one, implications of which have not yet been completely analyzed. Agreement on this feature is difficult because Brit Chiefs of Staff have stressed extreme importance of full US participation in all regional organizations, and in particular in Western European organization. For present, US position should be that full membership in either Western European Group or in WU is not advisable. However, extent of US participation should be increased over present observer status to point short of full membership, as described by term ‘participation as appropriate’.” Amplification JCS thinking has been communicated to Kibler. In addition to representations by Brit Emb here and Bevin’s approach to Douglas, Brit have been pressing their views through military channels. US Govt position not yet completely finalized but any substantial deviation from JCS views unlikely.
Brit, Fr and most other reps agree Steering Cmte should include only US, UK and France, and that Italian and Netherlands efforts to secure seat must be rejected.
One point which has so far been only tentatively discussed is nature and location of Production and Supply Board. We envisage it as similar to WUMSB designed primarily to coordinate European production, and located in Europe. This surprised Brit and Continentals who had apparently envisaged it as working with Military Cmte on allocation MAP. That concept unacceptable to us.
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