Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Volume III, National Security Policy; Arms Control and Disarmament, Microfiche Supplement

607. Memorandum From Gray to Herter and Gates¹

Washington, December 14, 1960

MEMORANDUM FOR

• Secretary of State
• Secretary of Defense

I am directed by the President to request that the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense prepare a codification of U.S. Policy on Arms Control in a single document which would become a part of the National Security Council record.

If I or any members of the NSC staff can be of any assistance I trust you will let me know.

Gordon Gray
Special Assistant to the President

Attachment

Letter From Haskins to Gray

November 29, 1960

Mr. Gray:

Attached is a proposed draft letter to the Secretary of State, seconding the recommendation of the Secretary of Defense for a codification of U.S. policy on arms control in a single NSC document.

I am afraid that I share Bob Amory’s estimate as to the unlikelihood that such a document can be prepared by January 20, let alone by December 10.

The JCS draft enclosed with the letter from the Secretary of Defense seems scarcely a recapitulation of agreed existing policy. It states, for example:

“The U.S. negotiations effort must ensure that in the post-arms control agreement era the U.S. will be able to maintain at any stage an adequate response to the entire spectrum of the remaining Sino-Soviet Bloc threat; namely, an evident, secure nuclear retaliatory capability and an evident, flexible capability for military operations short of general nuclear war.”

If you do wish to give every possible impetus to achieving a codification during this Administration, I suggest that you ask the President to raise the matter in the presence of Secretaries Herter and Gates and request them to produce an agreed codification for adoption in the NSC by a day certain.

Charles A. Haskins

1. Source: Directs preparation of a codification of U.S. arms control policy in a single document. No classification marking (Top Secret enclosure). 2 pp. Eisenhower Library, White House Office Files, Records of the Office of the Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, Arms Control.