49. Editorial Note
On October 16, 1964, the People’s Republic of China exploded an atomic bomb in the atmosphere. Documentation on this development, which brought the number of nations having atomic weapons to five, is scheduled for publication in volume XXVII. One effect of the successful Chinese test was to heighten concerns throughout the Johnson administration about nuclear proliferation. President Johnson’s own concern was expressed in a telephone conversation between McGeorge Bundy and Under Secretary of State George Ball, October 29, 9:10 a.m.:
“Bundy said there was lots of feeling by the President that we should get a higher-level, harder look at the problem of nuclear spread—a better policy than we would be able to get by using our interhouse machinery. The thought has been expressed [that] a nuclear spread task force be established. He mentioned Ros Gilpatric in this regard, whom [Page 121] Ball thought would be excellent. It was decided that Bundy would tentatively mention this to the President, subject to what Secretary Rusk would have to say on it.” (Johnson Library, Ball Papers, Disarmament, Box 3)
On November 1, the White House announced the appointment of a special panel of citizens to advise the President on the proliferation problem. In this announcement the panel was asked “to explore the widest range of measures that the United States might undertake in conjunction with other governments or by itself.” (Quoted in Glenn T. Seaborg, with Benjamin S. Loeb, Stemming the Tide: Arms Control in the Johnson Years, (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1987), pages 136-137) Formally entitled the Task Force on Nuclear Proliferation, the group was often referred to more simply as the Gilpatric Committee after its chairman, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric.
The names of the members of the task force and the instructions to it were contained in NSAM No. 320, Document 51.
The Gilpatric Committee received briefings and administrative support from the Committee on Nuclear Weapons Capabilities, which had been created only a few months earlier. Regarding the establishment and work of this Committee, see Documents 45 and 48.
The Gilpatric Committee held three plenary meetings on December 1, December 13-14, and January 7-8, 1965. For the minutes of the second and third of these meetings, see Documents 56 and 60. For Secretary Rusk’s meeting with the Committee at this third plenary meeting, January 7, see Document 59. Regarding the Gilpatric Committee’s presentation of its Report to the President, January 21, see Document 63. For text of the Report, January 21, 1965, see Document 64.
Additional documentation on the workings of the Gilpatric Committee is in Department of State, S/S-NSC Files: Lot 70 D 265, Gilpatric Committee, and Committee on Nuclear Weapons; ibid, S/S-RD Files: Lot 68 D 452, Committee of Principals; Johnson Library, National Security File, Committee File, Committee on Nuclear Proliferation File, Boxes 1-10; and ibid., National Security File, Subject File, Presidential Task Force-Committee on Nuclear Proliferation, Box 35.