Office of the Historian

129. Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs (Farley) to the Under Secretary of State (Katzenbach)1

Washington, October 20, 1967.

SUBJECT

  • Weekly Activity Report

1. Establishment of an Interagency Politico-Military Group

As a result of an exchange of correspondence between Assistant Secretary of Defense Warnke and Mr. Kohler,2 there has been established an Interagency Group to handle politico-military problems which will report to the SIG in a manner similar to the IRGs. For some time both State and Defense staffs have felt that the variety of committees dealing with various politico-military problems constituted an inefficient and irrational organization, and was inadequately related to the work of the SIG. On October 14 Paul Warnke proposed in a letter to Mr. Kohler the establishment of a politico-military group which would take over the functions of several existing groups. Mr. Kohler replied in a letter dated October 18 agreeing to the establishment of the new group which would normally be chaired by the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Politico-Military Affairs. In this letter he proposed that the first item to be taken up be the foreign policy implications of ABMs. As indicated in last week’s report, G/PM is preparing a detailed scenario of events which may be affected by the ABM decision and a policy paper on providing ABMs to foreign countries which will be discussed by the Politico-Military Group in early November and is scheduled to come before the SIG on November 16. It is anticipated that this committee will be the focal point for consideration of a variety of politico-military policy problems in the future.3

[Omitted here is unrelated material.]

  1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, S/P Files-SIG Papers: Lot 74 D 344, Political Military Group. Secret. Drafted by Joseph J. Wolf (G/PM).↩
  2. Not found. A memorandum of a luncheon conversation on October 3 during which Arthur Foley and John Ausland of G/PM discussed formation of the Political-Military Group with Morton Halperin of OASD/ISA is ibid.↩
  3. In a letter to John Barrow of the Armed Forces Staff College, August 9, 1968, Donald Lesh of the SIG Staff stated: “Chaired by the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Politico-Military Affairs, with representation from ISA, JCS, CIA, AID, USIA, and other interested agencies, the PMG has been very active since its foundation in late 1967.” (Ibid.) Under cover of a memorandum for PMG members, November 20, 1968, Arthur Foley provided a tabulation of major items considered by the PMG in 1967–1968. (Ibid.)↩