Department of State Disarmament Files
Memorandum by the Secretary of the Navy (Forrestal) to the Executive Committee on Regulation of Armaments
secret
Washington, 8 July
1947.
Subject: Adjournment of the United Nations Commission for Conventional Armaments.
- 1.
- The delegate of the USSR to the United Nations has stated that rejection of the view of his government, which regards consideration of atomic weapons and conventional weapons as inseparable, will impose obstacles which may result in the collapse of disarmament efforts.
- 2.
- In the event that when it is considered in the Security Council the Soviet delegate either vetoes or abstains from voting on the plan of work adopted by the Commission for Conventional Armaments, the United States should be prepared, if the situation so indicates, to move promptly and take action to defer further discussion of the regulation of armaments until other necessarily precedent steps are effectively accomplished.
- 3.
- It is therefore requested that the Executive Committee on the Regulation of Armaments undertake the formulation of policy recommendations regarding the above subject for submission to the Secretaries of State, War, and the Navy.
James Forrestal