Office of the Historian

433. National Security Decision Memorandum 2211

Washington, June 5, 1973.

TO

  • The Secretary of State
  • The Acting Secretary of Defense

SUBJECT

  • U. S. Policy Toward The Bahama Islands

The President has reviewed the issues relating to U.S. Policy Toward The Bahamas as discussed in the response to NSSM 117 and The Bahamas Options Paper prepared by the NSC/IG for Inter-American Affairs dated December 7, 1972. He has also reviewed the positions of the Departments with respect to these issues.

The President has approved the holding of preliminary talks with the British and Bahamian Governments aimed at extending our present agreements (with the U.K.), with the U.S. being prepared to offer a reasonable remuneration for use of the bases. Any agreement worked out in the preliminary talks should be on an ad referendum basis and should be submitted to the President for final approval.

If final agreement is not reached before the date of Bahamian independence (July 10), an interim progress report on the negotiations should be submitted by that date.

Henry A. Kissinger

  1. Summary: President Nixon approved the holding of talks with the British and Bahamian Governments on the extension of U.S. base rights in The Bahamas.

    Source: National Archives, RG 59, National Security Memoranda, 1969–1977, Lot 83D305, NSDM 221—6/5/73, U.S. Policy Toward The Bahama Islands. Secret. Copies sent to the Director of Central Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In a July 9 memorandum to Kissinger, Eliot reported that June 22–25 technical talks with the British and Bahamian Governments had resulted in an agreement in principle on a carryover agreement allowing the continued operation of U.S. bases in The Bahamas, pending the conclusion of a permanent agreement. (Ibid.)

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