<--PREV Doc #81  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #83 Document #82; March 23, 1957 To Harold Macmillan Series: EM, AWF, International Series: Macmillan ; Category: Top secret The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVIII - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part I: A New Beginning, Old Problems; January 1957 to May 1957 Chapter 1: The Mideast and the Eisenhower Doctrine   [Dear Harold:] I have your memorandum dated March twenty-second1 to which there are four attachments dealing with the subjects of: I. AQUATONE2 II. Tripartite Alert Procedure3 III. Nuclear Weapons for R.A.F. bombers IV. Nuclear bomb release gear for R.A.F. bombers The first two items mentioned in the attachments are completely satisfactory to the United States Government, and I should like to add that we are pleased that you found your way clear to allow United Kingdom bases to be used for AQUATONE if it should at some time become necessary. With respect to Item III, "Nuclear Weapons for R.A.F. bombers," I have a couple of additions to the phraseology submitted, merely to make certain that the meaning of the paper conformed to the requirements of United States law. The item as revised would read as follows: "The United Kingdom Government welcome the agreement to co-ordinate the strike plans of the United States and United Kingdom bomber forces, and to store United States nuclear weapons on R.A.F. airfields under United States custody for release subject to decision by the President in an emergency.4 We understand that for the present at least these weapons will be in the kiloton range. The United Kingdom forces could obviously play a much more effective part in joint strikes if the United States weapons made available to them in emergency were in the megaton range, and it is suggested that this pos- sibility might be examined at the appropriate time." With respect to Item IV, "Nuclear bomb release gear for R.A.F. bombers," I agree of course that you shall probably have to make some statement in order to prevent speculation in the press that might prove not only inaccurate but damaging.5 However, as I explained to you verbally, the United States would prefer not to be a party to a public statement which might give rise to demands upon us by other governments where we should not be in a position to meet the requests. Consequently I suggest the possible adequacy of a unilateral statement by yourself or by the British Defense Minister to the effect that Canberras are now being equipped to carry atomic bombs.6 With warm regard 1 Macmillan's memorandum is in PREM 11/1763. Eisenhower wrote this note while attending the Bermuda Conference (see no. 78). 2 In November 1954 the United States had initiated a secret project, code-named aquatone, to build a high-altitude reconnaissance plane that could penetrate Soviet air defenses. Former British Prime Minister Anthony Eden had authorized the lease of Lakenheath, a Strategic Air Command (SAC) base northeast of London, as the launch point for these U-2 spy planes, but in early 1956 the fears of worsening British-Soviet relations had dampened British enthusiasm for the cooperative venture. Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots trained in the United States had nevertheless manned U-2s on several flights over the Soviet Union (Ann Whitman memorandum, Nov. 22, 1954, AWF/AWD; Eden to Eisenhower, May 17, 1956, AWF/I: Eden; Richard M. Bissell, Jr., Reflections of a Cold Warrior: From Yalta to the Bay of Pigs [New Haven, 1996], pp. 92 - 117; Michael R. Beschloss, Mayday: Eisenhower, Khrushchev, and the U-2 Affair [New York, 1986], pp. 81 - 94, 105, 112, 116, 121 - 22, 146 - 47; Stephen E. Ambrose, Eisenhower, 2 vols. [New York, 1983 - 84], vol. II, The President [1984], pp. 227 - 28, 340 - 41). 3 For more on U.S.-Canadian coordination of alert measures see no. 206. 4 For background on the program to modify RAF planes in order to use atomic weapons see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, no. 2026; and Eden to Eisenhower, Oct. 5, 1956, AWF/I: Eden; see also Eisenhower to Adams and Hauge, Feb. 15, 1954, and other supporting documents in AWF/A, Wilson, and AWF/I: Great Britain, Plan K. Eisenhower had added the words "under United States custody" and "subject to decision by the President" to Macmillan's memorandum (Macmillan to Eisenhower, Mar. 22, 1957, AWF/I: Macmillan). 5 RAF Canberra bombers had been fitted with special nuclear weapons release slips manufactured in the United States. "Although this work has been treated with the utmost secrecy," Macmillan had written, "Canberras with these fitments are now coming into squadron service, and the danger of a leakage of this news or speculation is inevitably growing." He suggested the release of a joint public statement (ibid.). 6 In a handwritten note at the bottom of Macmillan's memorandum Eisenhower had written to Dulles: "Foster--regarding this point--I suggested possibility--and adequacy--of mere unilateral statement of British Defense that 'Canberras are now equipped to carry atomic bombs'" (ibid.). On April 4 British Defense Minister Duncan Sandys would include this statement, as amended by Eisenhower, in his announcement of changes in British defense policy (Macmillan, Riding the Storm, pp. 263 - 64; New York Times, Apr. 5, 1957). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Top secret To Harold Macmillan, 23 March 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 82. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/second-term/documents/82.cfm <--PREV Doc #81  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #83

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