115. Telegram From the Department of State to the Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and European Regional Organizations1
2609. NATUS. Embassy for Crawford and James. Refs: Polto 827, Bonn 1500.2 Joint State/Defense message. Reference is made to Ambassador Cleveland’s comment in reftel on the need for candor in explaining adjustments in US force strength in Europe to our NATO Allies. We appreciate the difficulties occasioned in reconciling our present policy of unequivocal commitment to hold the line on our NATO committed forces with recent minor adjustments in those forces we have had to make and agree that we should avoid to extent possible further categoric statements on the maintenance of present composition and number of our forces.
The adjustments we have made in our NATO forces are thus far minor and demonstrably in line with NATO-wide practices as developed over the years. If we raise the issue at the Erhard level we will be calling special attention to nothing more than minor changes in our NATO forces; a circumstance which would almost certainly be taken as a warning of drastic cuts yet to come. We have no evidence that the NATO governments are troubled by our recent record of force adjustments because of the Vietnam demands; but we know no better way to stimulate European nervousness than to try to anticipate the unpredictable in the interest of candor. To attempt to “explain” our NATO force adjustments to Erhard or any other NATO leader would, we believe, be taken as such a hint of impending substantial force changes, thereby prejudicing the chances of successful negotiations on the military future of the Alliance. Against this background what is required is to draw no special attention to our force adjustments in Europe—even at the cost of leaving a few things unsaid. Meanwhile, it may be possible to move on with the important questions of nuclear sharing and its relationship to conventional force levels in Europe. We therefore subscribe to Bonn’s recommendations that we should make no effort to explain our minor force changes to Erhard.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, DEF 6 NATO. Secret. Drafted by William B. Bader on December 8; cleared by Spiers, Kitchen, Johnson, Finn, G/PM, and the Department of Defense; and approved by Leddy. Repeated to Bonn.↩
- Polto 827 from Paris, November 20, recommended that Chancellor Adenauer be told candidly that the minor adjustments to special units in Europe did not affect the U.S. commitment to the continent. That way, when such force changes took place in the future because of the situation in Southeast Asia, the Germans would not get “a bad case of jitters.” (Ibid.) Telegram 1500 from Bonn has not been found.↩