Office of the Historian

74. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) to Secretary of State Rusk1

Washington, March 4, 1965.

I have discussed with the President the proposal in your memorandum of February 26 that letters be sent on ANF/MLF to the Prime Ministers of the UK, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.2 I also discussed with the President the more modest alternative which you and I talked about on the phone—namely, oral messages to Wilson and Erhard.

The President believes that neither Wilson nor Erhard is in any doubt as to his own basic position, and he thinks it is also very clear that [Page 188] unless the situation changes sharply as a result of the meeting in Bonn, it is very unlikely that there will be any prospect of agreement before the German elections. In this situation he thinks it is better to wait and hear what happens between Wilson and Erhard.

Let me add, as a personal view, that I wonder whether we should not ask ourselves a few hard questions about the whole MLF concept before we agree to any serious multilateral discussion this spring and summer. I favor such discussions, but my own growing conviction is that the MLF as such is never going to be the right next step for the necessary number of nations all at the same time—at least not until we have made progress in some other way first. I therefore wonder if we should be giving close thought to other possibilities for nuclear coordination within the Alliance which may be more modest but which are also more likely to happen. I have mentioned this personal view to the President, and he has suggested that I raise it with you and Bob McNamara and George Ball for discussion.3

McGeorge Bundy 4
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, DEF(MLF). Secret. Copies were sent to Ball and McNamara.↩
  2. A copy of this memorandum is ibid. Copies of the draft letters are attached to the source text.↩
  3. On March 4, Tyler told British Minister Michael Stewart that the President had decided not to send the letters. According to Tyler, “Stewart groaned and said he was really disappointed to hear this,” since there were some discouraging noises about the MLF coming from Bonn. (Memorandum of conversation, March 4; ibid., DEF(ANF))↩
  4. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩