No. 876
Editorial Note
After receipt of the Spanish memorandum of October 31, transmitted in telegram 360 from Madrid, November 4 (Document 873), the negotiations made such progress that there was hope in Madrid [Page 1904] and Washington that the agreements might be concluded prior to the end of the year. Then, on December 23, the Spanish presented to Kissner a draft of the defense pact (which was intended to serve as a published covering agreement to the secret technical schedules) which contained two provisions deemed unacceptable by the American negotiators.
The first provision stated that United States-Spanish collaboration on the construction of base facilities and the furnishing by the United States of military equipment to Spanish air, sea, and land forces were to occur “on a parallel basis, in such a manner that, when the moment of utilization of the desired facilities is reached, the minimum necessities required for the defense of Spanish territory which shall be determined in subsequent technical agreements will have been covered.” The second provision stated that, in case of war, the “timing and the manner of combat utilization” of the bases was to be subject to “prior consultations between both governments.”
Having failed to alter the substance of these provisions during negotiations in the first 2 weeks of January 1953, as reported in telegram 534 from Madrid, January 9 (711.56352/1–2153), the United States negotiating team transmitted the text of the Spanish counterproposal to Washington in telegram 563 on January 22. (711.56352/1–2253) Transmitted on the previous day in telegram 562 was a letter handed to General Kissner by General Vigon on January 14 in which Vigon complained that the United States was developing an agreement that had “the double aspect of a concrete military pact for one of the sides, and of a benevolent political declaration of vague military content for the other.” (711.56352/1–2153)