339. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in the United Kingdom0

5941. Deliver following message from the President to Prime Minister Macmillan. Advise date time delivery.

“February 22, 1958.

Dear Harold: By now you will have heard through your Embassy here in Washington of our agreement to the proposals in your message of February 16 for modifications of language in the IRBM agreement.

I understand your problem on the question of manning the missiles, and we shall do our best to see to it that no statements from our side refer to the possibility of interim manning of initial IRBMs by United States personnel. There is already press speculation on this point but publication of the agreement may well reduce this, especially in view of the statement in the agreement that missiles will be manned by United Kingdom personnel.

I know we are agreed that it is in our common interest to achieve the earliest possible deployment of IRBMs in the United Kingdom. Because of the time factor in training British personnel, our military believe if we are, in fact, to achieve the earliest possible deployment, it will be necessary for United States personnel to man initially the IRBM squadron scheduled for deployment to the United Kingdom this year. However, I concur with your thought that we can deal with details of this matter later in the year. I would, at the same time, point out that this question of manning is largely a technicality, since your Government and ours would have joint operational control, as they do on SAC bomber bases in the United Kingdom, regardless of whether the equipment is manned by United Kingdom or United States personnel.

With warm regard. As ever, Ike.”

Observe Presidential Handling.

Dulles
  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File. Secret; Presidential Handling. Drafted and approved in S/S and cleared by Goodpaster.