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USUN Files

The Secretary of the Navy (Forrestal) to the Deputy United States Representative on the United Nations Commission on Conventional Armaments (Bard)

Washington, 1 July 1947.

Dear Ralph: Admiral Sherman1 has told me of your discussion with him, Admiral Wooldridge2 and Captain Smith concerning the regulation of conventional armaments.

As I see it, we should adhere to our position of 21 March, 1947,3 of deferring any implementation of regulation of conventional armaments (including actual exchange of information and actual inspection of any sort) until the following essential preliminaries have been accomplished:

(a)
Satisfactory treaties of peace.
(b)
Effective arrangements for the control of atomic weapons.
(c)
Effective arrangements for the control of other weapons of mass destruction.
(d)
Arrangements for effective use of a United Nations military force.

The Navy Department holds strongly to the view that regulation of conventional armaments must follow the achievement of security. Even though it may be a long time before we achieve the degree of security which will warrant reduction of our armaments we should adhere to our planned program. Any plan which involves inspection of our forces and resources before we have achieved a control which will prevent the use of atomic and other weapons of mass destruction is unacceptable for the simple reason that it jeopardizes the future security of the United States.

Sincerely yours,

James Forrestal
  1. Vice Adm. Forrest P. Sherman, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations.↩
  2. Rear Adm. Edmund T. Wooldridge, Assistant Chief of Naval Operations for Political-Military Affairs.↩
  3. Reference is presumably to the position defined in Doc. RAC D–13c (Final), March 20, p. 437.↩