43. Letter From Secretary of Defense McNamara to the President’s Adviser on Disarmament (McCloy)0
Dear Jack: Reference is made to your letter of June 2, 19611 which requested that the Department of Defense make a study of the relative military consequences to the U. S. and the USSR of cut-off of production of fissionable materials for use in weapons, and to our reply of June 10 which indicated that the Joint Chiefs of Staff were undertaking this study.
Enclosed for your consideration and that of the Committee of Principals is a memorandum from the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, subject: “Net Military Consequences of a Cessation of Production of Fissionable Material (U)”, to which is appended the evaluation by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.2 I am in general agreement with the views of the Chairman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff as expressed therein.
As emphasized in General Lemnitzer’s memorandum, there are certain principles which must be adhered to in negotiations on this subject in order to protect the security interests of the United States. These include a concurrent nuclear test ban, adequately enforced.
Of particular importance is the close relationship between the cessation of production measure and other arms control measures. I agree with the Chairman’s recommendation that, because of this relationship, the enclosed study should be considered in conjunction with a report [Page 110] being prepared by the Joint Chiefs of Staff which addresses the military impact on the United States of reducing its military forces to 1.8 million men. This report should be completed in a few days, and I expect to be able to forward it to you in the very near future.
It is noted from the enclosure that the Joint Chiefs of Staff consider that “nuclear weapons and force levels are so closely related that they cannot be considered in isolation under any condition short of total and universal disarmament.” In view of their firm opinion on this relationship, I believe that the Committee of Principals should await completion of the study on force reductions, before considering the resolution of whether or not the nuclear measures in the first stage of the U.S. draft negotiating paper should be linked to prior accomplishment of force reductions to 2.1 million men for the U.S. and the USSR.
Sincerely,
- Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Departments and Agencies Series, ACDA, Committee of Principals, 7/27/61-7/28/61. Top Secret; Restricted Data. A copy was sent to Bundy.↩
- In this letter, McCloy asked that an evaluation of the net military consequence of a nuclear production cutoff be undertaken, as suggested by the Perkins Panel (see Document 11). (Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OSD Files: FRC 65 A 3464, Atomic 400.112 23 Mar 61)↩
- Both dated July 21. (Ibid.)↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this stamped signature.↩