Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XIII, Western Europe and Canada

180. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) to Secretary of State Rusk and Secretary of Defense McNamara⁰

Washington, March 11, 1963.

It may be useful if I circulate this brief summary of the conclusions reached in the meeting with the President on Saturday, March 9, at noon.¹

1. It was agreed that the United States will give energetic support to the Paragraph 6 forces, along the lines of the agreed and approved guidelines worked out after the Tyler-Greenhill discussions.² In particular, it is the object of the United States Government to reach announced agreement on the institution of the Paragraph 6 forces not later than the Ottawa meeting in May. The State Department will retain coordinating responsibility for this effort, while the Defense Department will undertake the direct task of negotiating these new military arrangements, involving, as they do, intense discussions with SHAPE and with Defense officials in other countries.

2. The further assessment of the multilateral force and its prospects must await the return of Ambassador Merchant, but the President has reaffirmed the definite preference of the U.S. Government for surface vessels as against nuclear submarines. It was agreed that an intensive effort should be made to bring to the attention of our allies the professional judgment of outstanding military men of several countries that in the case of a mixed manned force, surface vessels are strongly preferable. It was further agreed, subject to any difficulty that might be discovered in further study by the officers directly charged with the enterprise, that we should arrange for an extensive program of visits to Washington by well-qualified defense and military officials of NATO countries, so that the case for the surface force can be fully presented on the widest possible base here. We do not wish to use a flying squadron, like the Merchant mission, in this case if it can be avoided.

McGeorge Bundy

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, Def(MLF) 3. Top Secret.
1. No other record of this meeting has been found.
2. Records of Tyler’s meetings with Denis Greenhill of the British Embassy, February 18–21, concerning the implementation of paragraph 6 of the Nassau Agreement are in Department of State, Central Files, Pol US-UK.