79. Memorandum From Harold H. Saunders of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Acting Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Komer)1
RWK:
Kitchen at lunch may talk Libya. Report on his London talks attached.2
My reading is that, while the Brits may not be trying to ditch their formal treaty commitment to Libya, they’re clearly drawing a narrow circle around it. It’s OK to plan how we’d deal with Nasser’s army coming across the border. But we can’t stop at “external aggression” as the Brits seem to. So I’d say the London talks were OK as far as they went.
The Brits are worried about two things:
- (a)
- They fear Nasser will see the real weakness of their new position, thus degrading the deterrent value of their force.
- (b)
- If they actually have to put their force in the field, they’ll need help lifting reinforcements. They’d like us to increase 6th Fleet visits and training exercises geared to Libya and also at least to promise we’d help them bring up their reinforcements if Nasser attacked.
Washington’s next bureaucratic step is to decide (a) how much we’ll do to bolster the deterrent’s tarnished image and (b) whether this is enough. I don’t mind moving a few ships around, but I think we ought to let the Brits know the planning doesn’t stop there. (I realize the Four Square planning goes on in other channels, but I think we ought to keep the focus straight.)