Office of the Historian

PPS Files, Lot 64 D 563

Substance of Discussions of State–Joint Chiefs of Staff Meeting Held in the Pentagon Building, November 21, 1951, 10:30 a.m.1

[Extract]
top secret
Washington, November 21, 1951, 10:30 a.m.

Present

  • General Collins
  • Admiral Fechteler2
  • General Twining3
  • General Bolte
  • General White
  • Admiral Fife4
  • General Cabell5
  • Admiral Wooldridge6
  • Admiral Lalor
  • Colonel Carns
  • General Ruffner7
  • Mr. Matthews
  • Mr. Nitze
  • Mr. Bonbright8
  • Mr. Ferguson
  • Mr. Lacy9
  • Mr. Johnson10
  • Mr. Marshall11
  • Mr. Tufts
  • Mr. Lay12

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Admiral Fechteler: What about atomic energy questions?13

Mr. Matthews: Mr. Churchill will clearly want to take this range of questions up with us.

Mr. Nitze: I thought that we would adhere to the position which we took in our previous talks—the talks that Mr. Matthews, General Bradley, Elliot, Franks and I had. That position flowed from our talks with the JCS and JSSC.

Mr. Matthews: We think there is an advantage to consider this in the context of the joint policies needed in the event of war. I do not think that Mr. Churchill will be prepared to accept our position. [Page 899] He still thinks in terms of the war-time agreement14 and full cooperation we had at that time. He will want to return to that situation if he can and probably believes that had he stayed in office, that cooperation would have been maintained.

Admiral Fechteler: In his Guild Hall speech15 Churchill stated that the British were entitled to special consideration in this matter because of the bases problem. What does he mean in your opinion by special considerations? Does he want financial assistance or something else?

Mr. Matthews: No, I think he wants information and consultation regarding all atomic matters.

Admiral Fechteler: Surely he knows our law, and that led me to wonder whether he would have made this proposal public if what he had in mind was information and consultation.

Mr. Nitze: Of course the law has now been modified in some respects.16

General Collins: We are working on this problem with State at the request of General Eisenhower. He has got to be able to talk with some of his staff people about atomic energy matters if they are going to plan intelligently. A position on this is being worked up regarding a modification of the law.

Mr. Matthews: It is clear that Churchill is going to raise these questions since he is bringing Lord Cherwell17 with him.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

  1. For information on the State–JCS meetings, see footnote 1, p. 33.↩
  2. Adm. William Fechteler, Chief of Naval Operations.↩
  3. Gen. Nathan F. Twining, Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force.↩
  4. Vice Adm. James Fife, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Operations).↩
  5. Maj. Gen. Charles P. Cabell, Director of the Joint Staff, Joint Chiefs of Staff.↩
  6. Rear Adm. Edmund T. Wooldridge, Assistant Chief of Naval Operations for Political-Military Affairs.↩
  7. Maj. Gen. Clark L. Ruffner, Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense (International Security Affairs).↩
  8. James C. H. Bonbright, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs.↩
  9. William S. B. Lacy, Director of the Office of Philippine and Southeast Asian Affairs.↩
  10. U. Alexis Johnson, Director of the Office of Northeast Asian Affairs.↩
  11. C. B. Marshall, Member of the Policy Planning Staff.↩
  12. James S. Lay, Jr., Executive Secretary of the National Security Council.↩
  13. This subject arose in the context of consideration of the impending visit of Winston S. Churchill, the new British Prime Minister. Information on planning for the Churchill visit of January 1952, is included in documentation on United States relations with the United Kingdom in volume iv.↩
  14. For documentation on Churchill’s request for the publication of the Quebec Agreement of 1943, see pp. 685 ff.↩

  15. In an address at Guildhall on November 9, Churchill stated the following:

    • “It must not be forgotten that under the late Government we took peculiar risks in providing the principal atomic base for the United States in East Anglia, and that, in consequence, we placed ourselves in the very forefront of Soviet antagonism. We have therefore every need and every right to seek and receive the fullest consideration from Americans for our point of view, and I feel sure this will not be denied us.”

    ↩
  16. For documentation on the enactment on October 30 of Public Law 235, 82d Cong., amending the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, see pp. 685 ff.↩
  17. British Paymaster-General; adviser to the Prime Minister on scientific matters.↩