288. Letter From Prime Minister Macmillan to President Eisenhower1

Dear Mr. President: You asked me yesterday to let you have a Memorandum about closer co-operation between the member countries of W.E.U. over research, development and production of armaments.2 Here it is.

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I hope you will give it sympathetic consideration because I believe there is an opening here for constructive work which will help politically to unite Western Europe.

Yours sincerely

Harold Macmillan

Enclosure

As explained in the memorandum handed to the State Department by H.M. Embassy, Washington on March 16,3 the United Kingdom would like to co-operate more closely with other W.E.U. countries over armaments research, development and production.

Such co-operation would have the strategic advantage of promoting the efficient armament of our allies and the economic advantage of sharing the load and streamlining the use of our scientific resources. Our principal purpose, however, is political: to prove our resolve to cooperate with Europe, to give greater reality to the concept of a united Europe, and to offset the effects of our force reductions.

We are well aware of the difficulties inherent in such co-operation, notably the security risks. We have, however, made a start in the W.E.U. Standing Armaments Committee and offered to discuss any of the items listed in the Annex to the Embassy memorandum of March 16. We have at all stages made it clear that our co-operation with the W.E.U. countries must be without prejudice to our association with the U.S.A. and the European countries fully accept this.

We would now like to extend the field of W.E.U. co-operation. We would still exclude all atomic matters, but we would like to exchange information about new weapon projects, such as guided missiles, and discuss future co-operation in their development and production. This would involve discussing with W.E.U. countries items which incorporate information we have obtained from the U.S.A.

Before embarking on this course, the United Kingdom would therefore like to know whether the United States Government is willing:—

(a)
to adopt a liberal attitude towards the release of information, derived from American sources, to individual W.E.U. countries on a limited basis and subject to proper safeguards;
(b)
to give an assurance that our association with W.E.U. will not prejudice the release of American information to us.

We hope very much that the United States Government will give a favourable response to this request, in view of the political dividend which we believe can be gained from this type of W.E.U. co-operation.

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A list of the projects we would propose to discuss with our European allies will be communicated to the United States authorities by H.M. Embassy in Washington.

  1. Source: Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 62 D 181, CF 868. Secret.
  2. See Document 277.
  3. Not printed. (Department of State, Central Files, 740.5/3–1657)