Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, The Near East and Africa, Volume V

S/S–NSC Files: Lot 63 D 351: NSC 103 Series

Draft Statement of Policy Proposed by the National Security Council¹

top secret
NSC 103

Washington, February 6, 1951.

The Position of the United States With Respect to Greece

draft statement of policy proposed by the national security council on greece

1. It continues to be in the security interest of the United States that Greece not fall under communist domination.

a. Greece occupies an important strategic position which, in the hands of an enemy, would be a threat to the Eastern Mediterranean, the Suez, Turkey and the Turkish Straits. Communist domination of Greece would serve as a springboard for communist penetration, political and military, into the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East area.

b. Communist domination of Greece would damage U.S. prestige and weaken the will to resist in other countries threatened with communist domination.

c. Communist domination of Greece could only be viewed as the first in a series of military and political consequences which would gravely threaten the security of the United States.

2. Accordingly, the United States should:

a. Manifest publicly its active interest in the maintenance of the political independence and territorial integrity of Greece and its continued support of the Truman doctrine as applied to Greece.

b. Provide appropriate international political support to Greece.

c. Promote the development of a stable democratic Greek government oriented to the West.

d. Provide economic assistance and advice in order to develop a viable Greek economy.

e. Lend appropriate support to the Greek military establishment to assist it in:

(1) Maintaining internal security.

(2) Resisting effectively an attack by satellite forces augmented by guerrillas.

(3) Causing maximum practicable delay to an attack involving direct Soviet participation.

(4) …

f. Provide Greece, within the limits of existing priorities and availabilites, military matériel, supplies, and guidance necessary to the accomplishment of the objectives listed in e above.

3. A Soviet or satellite attack against Greece would threaten the security interests of the United States and so increase the danger of global war that the United States in common prudence should assist in opposition to the attack in a manner and scope to be determined in the light of circumstances then existing, including the following general courses of action:

a. Place itself in the best possible position to meet the increased threat of global war.

b. Seek, by political measures, to stop the aggression, localize the action, and restore the status quo.

c. Provide such military matériel and deploy such forces to the general area as can be made available without jeopardizing the security of the United States or areas of greater strategic importance to the United States.

d. Urge other nations to take similar action, including appropriate measures in the United Nations and NATO.

1. A covering note, not printed, by S. Everett Gleason, Acting Executive Secretary of the National Security Council, to the National Security Council, dated February 6, 1951, stated that NSC 103 was comprised of two parts: The draft statement of policy was prepared by the NSC Staff on the basis of an initial draft by the Bureau of near Eastern, South Asian, and African Affairs, Department of State. The NSC Staff Study on the Position of the United States With Respect to Greece printed infra was prepared for the information of the Council in connection with the draft policy statement. Gleason invited attention to the fact that not all members of the Senior NSC Staff had concurred in paragraph 3 of the draft statement of policy, and he concluded with the recommendation that if the Council adopted the draft statement of policy, it be forwarded to the President for his approval. (S/S–NSC Files: Lot 63 D 351: NSC 103 Series)