Office of the Historian

95. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for Policy Planning (Smith) to Secretary of State Herter0

Washington, April 5, 1960.

SUBJECT

  • Review of United States Policy in the Event of War (NSC 5904/1)1

NSC Action 20572 calls for an annual review of the NSC paper on “United States Policy in the Event of War.” The NSC Planning Board has [Page 393] reviewed this paper and has agreed to recommend to the Council that the policy not be reviewed at this time except for deletion of a footnote as an editorial change.

The policy paper outlines briefly and in very general terms U.S. policy in the event of (1) general war and (2) war in which the USSR is not a belligerent. The footnote which is to be deleted applies to the second section of the policy and indicates that the paper was prepared upon the assumption that any war in which United States and USSR forces are overtly and directly involved is general war. The present Strategic Concept is based upon this assumption. The footnote also explains that this assumption was not examined in connection with the war objectives paper but might be considered in the course of the annual basic policy review.

The basic policy review did examine this question and the revised version of basic policy, which is now current,3 provides that any war between the U.S. and the USSR in which sizable forces participate is a general war. Thus the footnote on page 2 of NSC 5904/1 should now be deleted.

Recommendation:

That you sign the attached memorandum for the Executive Secretary, National Security Council, concurring in the Planning Board’s recommendation not to revise NSC 5904/1 except for the deletion of the footnote on page 2.4

  1. Source: Department of State, S/P–NSC Files: Lot 62 D 1, NSC 5904 Series. Top Secret. Drafted by Furnas.↩
  2. Document 55.↩
  3. See footnote 8, Document 54.↩
  4. NSC 5906/1, Document 70.↩

  5. Herter signed the attachment, not printed, on April 7. In two memoranda to Gates dated April 11, Twining reported approval of the change by all the Chiefs but White, described the grounds for White’s dissent, and stated his own agreement with the majority. (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Twining Papers)

    In an April 27 memorandum to the NSC, Lay stated that on April 23 the President had approved NSC Action No. 2221. (Department of State, S/P–NSC Files: Lot 62 D 1, NSC 5904 Series) This action concurred “in the recommendation by the NSC Planning Board that NSC 5904/1 not be revised at this time, except for deletion of the footnote on page 2 thereof as an editorial revision not involving a change of policy.” (ibid., S/S–NSC (Miscellaneous) Files: Lot 66 D 95, Records of Action by the National Security Council)

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