Office of the Historian

207. National Security Action Memorandum No. 2530

Washington, July 13, 1963.

MEMORANDUM FOR

  • The Secretary of Defense

The President thinks that it would be helpful to the future of our efforts with the multilateral force if a beginning could be made in mixed manning somewhere in existing NATO forces. He would like a prompt study and report of the feasibility of establishing an experimental mixed manned ship or ships in the 6th Fleet, for the purpose of testing the effectiveness of the mixed manned concept and also of showing the continued interest of the United States in progress on this front.1

McGeorge Bundy
  1. Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, NSAM 253. Confidential. A copy was sent to the Secretary of State.↩
  2. On August 15 Ball sent a memorandum to the President supporting the idea of a mixed-manning experiment, but stating that from a political point of view it would be preferable if the Germans or Italians proposed the idea. (Ibid.) On August 30 Bundy sent a memorandum to Rusk and McNamara, saying that the President, after receiving reports from the Departments of State and Defense, authorized a diplomatic initiative to see whether a group of governments interested in the MLF would view favorably the creation of a mixed-manned ship or ships. (Ibid.)↩