Office of the Historian

153. Letter From Acting Secretary of State Katzenbach to Secretary of Defense McNamara1

Washington, December 8, 1966.

Dear Bob:

Thank you for your letter of November 17 transmitting a Defense draft NSAM on chemical and biological warfare policy.2 Our initial reaction is that there are large areas of agreement between your draft and the CB paper developed in State3 and previously sent to Defense and other interested agencies. Both drafts are now being studied by members of my staff. After completion of this work, it may be useful to follow up on your suggestion to discuss any remaining issues. You will recall that Bill Foster stressed the desirability for developing basic national policy in the CB field in a letter to the Committee of Principals in October, 1963.4 More recently, on April 19, 1966, Butch Fisher addressed a letter on the same subject to the Deputies.5 In view of ACDA’s continuing interest in our CB policy, I suggest that it would be desirable to invite Bill, as well as Dick Helms and Len Marks, to join the discussions. I will subsequently be in touch with you about a mutually agreeable time.

Sincerely,

Nick
  1. Source: Washington National Records Center, OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330 70 A 6648, 384 1966 Jan-. Secret.↩
  2. Document 145.↩
  3. See footnote 3, Document 145.↩
  4. See footnote 2, Document 121.↩
  5. Document 122.↩