Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volumes VII, VIII, IX, Arms Control; National Security Policy; Foreign Economic Policy, Microfiche Supplement

101. Message from Prime Minister Macmillan to President Kennedy, March 13¹

March 13, 1962

Dear Friend,

I was most grateful for your message of March 10 about Nuclear Tests and Berlin. I have of course kept the paragraphs of your message on the wider issues entirely to myself and Alec Home but I have given the sense of the first two paragraphs of your message to the Minister of Defence and my scientific advisers.

They have now given further thought to the situation, including the argument in your first paragraph. I would like to take up your suggestion that our two sets of experts should study this matter together and I would like to send our team over to Washington as soon as possible starting at working level. Sir William Penney and Sir Solly Zuckerman would follow. If you agree, the more junior group of experts could leave for Washington tomorrow, Wednesday, March 14. Perhaps you would let David Gore know if this would suit you.

I shall send you a message on the wider issues when I have reflected upon them a little longer.

With warm regards,

Harold Macmillan

1. Agreement to bilateral working-level discussions. Top Secret. 2 pp. Department of State, Presidential Correspondence: Lot 66 D 204, Macmillan–Kennedy, 1961–1962.