Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XI, Arms Control and Disarmament

219. Telegram From the Department of State to the Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization¹

Washington, December 5, 1967, 1602Z.

79423. Disto/NATUS/Busec. For Cleveland from Secretary. Subject: NPT. Ref: USNATO 815.²

1. The November 30 NAC meeting on NPT seems to me to have ended rather inconclusively. What we need now are the definitive views of the Euratom countries and particularly those of Germany and Italy.

2. Therefore, in advance of this week’s NAC meeting,³ you should urge the Germans and the Italians to give their definitive views on the alternatives before them, taking into account your presentation on November 30, so that we will then be in a position to know whether we can take advantage of delay in ENDC recess until mid-December to attempt to complete the NPT. You should make clear that delay in ENDC recess was accomplished solely for this purpose.

3. It seems that our allies have had sufficient time to try to pull themselves together and give us specific governmental positions. Since the last effort to reach an agreed Euratom solution was not successful, I am not too sanguine that any multilateral session as proposed by Dutch would produce a favorable result. Therefore we prefer handle discussions on this subject bilaterally.

4. I concur that my presence at NATO Ministerial will provide occasion, if necessary, for further consultations on unsolved NPT problems.⁴ However, I would not want to become involved in multilateral negotiations on complex Article III problem which has highly technical overtones. Moreover, by time of Ministerial meeting I would hope that we would already have had clear indication as to where our allies stand on clear alternatives already presented to them.

Rusk

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, DEF 18-6. Secret; Exdis; Immediate. Also sent to Bonn, Brussels, The Hague, London, Luxembourg, Paris, Rome, the Mission in Geneva, and USUN.
2. Not printed. (Ibid.)
3. Scheduled for December 6.
4. A Ministerial Meeting of the North Atlantic Council, attended by the Foreign and Defense Ministers of the 15 member countries, was held at the Council’s new temporary headquarters in Brussels December 13-14, under the chairmanship of French Foreign Minister Couve de Murville, President of the Council for 1967-1968.