Office of the Historian

461.119/6–1250: Circular airgram

The Secretary of State to Certain Diplomatic Offices 1

secret
Washington, June 12, 1950—8:10 a. m.

Excon. For information there follows the “Definitions of U.S. Criteria for 1A and 1B Policy and Commodity Areas Covered”. This paper was used as a basis for Tripartite meetings held with the British and French prior to the Consultative Group Meeting held in Paris May 31:

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Definitions of Class 1A and Class 1B

Class 1A is defined as follows:

Class 1A includes all materials or equipment which may contribute to the war potential of the Soviet Bloc to such a great extent that no export of such materials or equipment should be permitted to the Soviet Bloc.

One of the following criteria must be met for Class 1A:

(a)
Materials or equipment which are designed or used principally for the production and/or development of arms, ammunition and implements of war.
(b)
Materials or equipment which would contribute significantly to the war potential of the Soviet Bloc where the items incorporate advanced technology or unique technological know-how. It applies only to goods sufficiently important to the war potential of the Soviet Bloc that the absence of an embargo would permit a significant advance in Soviet Bloc technology over its present level of development.
(c)
Materials or equipment which would contribute significantly to the war potential of the Soviet Bloc in that the items, if embargoed, would maintain or create a critical deficiency in the war potential of the Soviet Bloc.

Class 1B is defined as follows:

“Class 1B includes all materials or equipment which are highly important from the point of view of their contribution to the war potential of the Soviet Bloc and of which the high strategic character is directly related to the quantitative extent to which they may be exported to the Soviet Bloc.”

In line with the above principles the United States’ control of exports for security purposes can be summarized as follows:

Area of Commodity Coverage

Arms and arms production

1.
Arms, ammunition and implements of war.
2.
Quasi arms (materials or equipment which are brought to bear against the enemy, or used in repelling his attacks, but which also have non-military uses; such as, motor boats, radar and certain explosives).
3.
Materials or equipment for arms production
(a)
Specialized tools and plant (such as machine tools used principally to produce arms).
(b)
Materials (such as chemicals used to produce high explosives).

Industrial potential

1.
Basic needs
(a)
Research and development (precision instruments, information on production, and prototypes).
(b)
Critical materials, components or equipment, (items which cut across wide fields of industry and which, if short, materially reduce [Page 148] war potential, such as ball bearings, tin, and machine tools of various sorts).
(c)
Other basic productivity contributions (items which in any basic industrial field permit the use of new techniques and by this means expand industrial potential; for example, a modern rayon plant or key equipment of such plant).
2.
Key industrial areas
(a)
Electric power
(b)
Minerals production
  • (i) Coal
  • (ii) Petroleum
  • (iii) Other, including uranium ore mining
(c)
Transport and communications
  • (i) Rail transport equipment
  • (ii) Road transport equipment
  • (iii) Water transport equipment
  • (iv) Communications equipment
(d)
Metallurgy
  • (i) Iron and steel plant or equipment
  • (ii) Other metal producing plant or equipment
(e)
Construction equipment
(f)
Chemical plant or equipment
Acheson
  1. This circular airgram was sent to the Embassies in Brussels, Copenhagen, London, Oslo, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, The Hague, Belgrade, Ankara, Athens, Lisbon, Ottawa, Moscow, and Warsaw, to the Legations in Bern, Dublin, Reykjavik, Vienna, Bucharest, Budapest, and Helsinki, and to the Office of the High Commissioner for Germany in Frankfort.↩