Office of the Historian

387. Memorandum for the Record, by the Counselor of the Department of State (MacArthur)1

Washington, June 5, 1956.

SUBJECT

  • Operation Stockpile
1.

General Wilton B. Persons of the White House telephoned Mr. Hoover yesterday saying he would like to be brought up to date regarding “Operation Stockpile” which the President had mentioned to him. Pursuant to Mr. Hoover’s request, I called on General Persons at the White House today and explained the nature and scope of “Operation Stockpile” stressing that it was a contingent planning exercise. Whether or not it would ever be implemented would depend on the evolution of events and the decision of the [Page 715] President. Subsequently, Mr. Hagerty joined us and I also informed him of this exercise of which he was aware and also told him that for planning purposes we had drawn up a draft announcement which might be issued:2

a.
In the event of a leak; or
b.
In the event the situation became very tense and it were deemed desirable to issue some announcement to serve as a deterrent against aggression by one of the parties.

Both General Persons and Mr. Hagerty had been under the impression that the Arab part of the stockpile would be shipped in a merchant vessel and they were very apprehensive about leaks. They felt considerably reassured when I explained to them that the arms would be carried in a U.S. Naval AKA vessel which would be nominally assigned as an additional unit to the 6th Fleet. I said that after the Secretary had seen the draft announcement and I had his comments, I would get in touch with General Persons and Mr. Hagerty to go over it with them.

2.
Yesterday I asked Captain Wagner when the AKA would be loaded with arms and on its way to the Mediterranean. Today he called me to say it should be loaded and on its way by June 28. I said I assumed a very routine announcement would be made saying that the vessel was being assigned to the 6th Fleet. He said that such a routine announcement had already been issued by Admiral Wright in Norfolk, under his US hat as CINCLANT (Commander–in–Chief, Atlantic). The announcement was made on May 29, 1956 and reads as follows:

“The Attack Cargo Ship USS Oglethorpe will sail from Norfolk, Virginia, the latter part of June with personnel replacements for the Sixth Fleet and additional equipment for the reinforced Marine battalion now serving in the Mediterranean, it was announced by Admiral Jerauld Wright, USN, Commander–in–Chief, Atlantic Fleet. The replacements, according to Admiral Wright, will relieve personnel whose enlistments will expire prior to the time their units are scheduled to return to the United States and will relieve men who have been selected for special schooling or new duty stations. Approximately 102 replacements will be transported. The USS Oglethorpe, a veteran of three major amphibious operations in the Korean conflict, is commanded by Captain C.S. Hutchings, USN.”

It is encouraging that thus far the routine announcement has not caused a ripple in terms of questions by the press, etc.

DMacA
  1. Source: Department of State, S/S–NEA Files: Lot 61 D 417, Omega #6. Top Secret; Omega. Sent to Macomber with copies to Hoover, Murphy, Russell, and Rountree.↩
  2. See the attachment to Document 382.↩