Office of the Historian

19. Airgram From the Mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to the Department of State1

CEDTO A–897
Paris, July 15, 1968.

SUBJECT

  • Technological Gap Hornig Report

REF

  • CA–8702, June 142

The report of the Interdepartmental Committee on the Technological Gap makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the subject. This Mission is in complete accord with the conclusion that the technological gap is only to a very limited degree a question of technological leads and lags. It clearly was the presence of political, psychological and economic considerations that enhanced the danger that the gap might develop into a divisive force of considerable importance in our relations with Western Europe.

[Page 42]

Due in large measure to United States willingness to cooperate in investigating the causes and effects of the gap in the OECD and NATO, and as a result of the educational process that also took place, much of the sensitivity surrounding the issue has been removed. It is apparent that the subject no longer arouses the strong emotions that it did, as recently as a year ago.

The Mission, therefore, believes there would be little advantage in making public an appropriately edited version of the report at this time. Issuance of an official high-level report on the gap, even in a heavily edited version, might only serve to bring the issue once again to the forefront of the political arena, and we believe it best that it remains quiescent.

Trezise
  1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Central Files, 1967–69, SCI 1–1 EURW–US. Limited Official Use. Drafted by Lester E. Edmunds, cleared by Philip R. Cook, and approved by Ambassador Trezise.↩
  2. Not printed. (Ibid.)↩