Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, National Security Affairs; Foreign Economic Policy, Volume I

S/S–NSC Files, Lot 63 D 351, NSC 114 Series

Memorandum by the Counselor (Bohlern) to the Secretary of State

top secret

[Washington,] October 17, 1951.

Subject: United States Programs for National Security; Senior Staff Draft Recommendations to the Council

While we were discussing with you yesterday afternoon NSC 114/2,¹ the Senior NSC Staff drafted recommendations to the Council with respect to the action that is proposed for that report. These recommendations are contained in Mr. Lay’s memorandum of October 16.²

In substance the Senior Staff recommends that the programs described in Part II of NSC 114/2 be used by the competent agencies for preliminary FY 1953 budget submissions.

With respect to Part I, which is the controversial portion of NSC 114/2, it is proposed that the Council direct the Senior Staff to submit “at the earliest practicable date a reappraisal of the policies and programs set forth in the NSC 68 and 114 series, including a revision of Part I of NSC 114/2”. This work would be undertaken in the light of a further analysis of Soviet capabilities as indicated by the latest Soviet atomic explosion, and of the evaluation of the “net capability of the USSR to injure the continental United States”.

This latter recommendation (paragraph b(2) of Mr. Lay’s memorandum of October 16) means that Part I is not yet a fully agreed analysis of the situation in regard to the Soviet Union on the part of the NSC Staff. In remanding it to the Senior Staff for revision this will afford an opportunity by State to produce a more balanced picture of the USSR including the vulnerabilities of the internal situation, which, as you know, I have felt has been a weakness in this series.

We have been informed that the JCS will circulate certain specific comments on Part I of NSC 114/2 prior to the Council meeting this afternoon.³ These comments, I understand, will attempt to correct what they regard as the overly pessimistic note of this section. It is highly unlikely that the Council itself will be able to examine these changes and since the paper itself is to be remanded for revision and re-appraisal by the Senior Staff, it would follow that the JCS suggestions should also be so remanded.

Recommendation:

It is proposed that you support the recommendations in Mr. Lay’s memorandum of October 16.

1. For partial text of NSC 114/2, October 12, see p. 182.
2. Ante, p. 229.
3. The Joint Chiefs of Staff expressed their views on NSC 114/2 in a memorandum to Secretary of Defense Lovett dated October 15. The Joint Chiefs stated that they had no objection to the military aspects of the paper and were not commenting on those features which were exclusively political, inasmuch as the latter were outside their purview. They did suggest certain changes in Part I of the paper in the interests of clarity and accuracy. On October 18, at the request of the Secretary of Defense, Executive Secretary Lay transmitted these comments to the members of the National Security Council and to the heads of the nonmember agencies concerned with the preparation of the NSC 114 Series. Neither the JCS memorandum nor Lay’s memorandum of transmittal is printed. (PPS Files, Lot 64 D 563)