68. Memorandum From Harold H. Saunders of the National Security Council Staff to Robert W. Komer of the National Security Council Staff1
RWK:
Pending any new ideas Dave Newsom may have brought back, here’s where we stand on Wheelus.
State is waiting for Defense’s response to draft negotiating instructions for the next round of talks (possibly February-March). Defense hasn’t formulated a position yet, although it has launched OP Plan 2, a program to make Wheelus more palatable to the Libyans. However, Defense admits we have to start thinking seriously about the next round. Newsom plans to get things going this week.
Defense has not made any massive study of alternatives such as we told the Libyans we’d have to make before we could talk about a departure date. The only other possible locations Defense sees are: (1) relocation of training activities at Moron AFB, Spain, at a construction cost of about $40 million plus whatever we have to pay Franco in MAP or political concessions (present agreement ends 1968) or fragmentation of training activities among several bases, including rotation to US (no price tag for this). Defense figures it could move in 2–3 years if necessary. These are DOD conclusions, but there isn’t any big “study.”
However, Defense doesn’t see this “study” as the real prerequisite for the next round of talks. They see the “study” as a fiction Lewis Jones invented to stall the Libyans. DOD doesn’t want to set a date for getting out if they can avoid it, though obviously they could pick one out of the air as easily as they could set one through any massive study. They want to try stalling for another round.
Defense would go back at the Libyans—not with a date but with a new package for joint use of Wheelus. The big new enticement would be moving the Libyan civil international airport to Wheelus. The Libyans want this, and USAFE has now reversed field and decided it could tolerate this. DOD hopes the base could then be designated as a Libyan airport and joint USAF-Libyan air force training center with our training activity as tenant.
I’d recommend asking DOD (perhaps Bill Lang) to do a short memo listing the possible bases where Wheelus activities could be moved and explaining what’s good or bad about each. At least this would clear the [Page 104] air between State and DOD. As long as Defense won’t document its reasons for wanting to stay at Wheelus, State will suspect that the “reasons” are typical Pentagon overstatement. A concrete list could at least get us talking about the real issues—Defense wants to stall and stay as long as possible while State doubts we can put GOL off much longer.