Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2011
The subject of when nuclear weapons might have to be employed by the United States during the early Cold War period was the setting for a prolonged and uneasy dialogue within the Anglo-American relationship. While British governments pressed for a formal agreement that there should be prior consultation before the atomic bomb was ever used, the Americans were determined to retain the freedom to take this crucial decision alone. This article explores the debates that ensued and the tensions that were created by this issue, between the meetings of Attlee and Truman in December 1950 and the Indochina crisis of 1954, and highlights the contrasting geopolitical positions of Britain and the United States as they sought to reconcile their views. For the British, playing host to a clutch of important US airbases, the risk of early nuclear devastation in any outbreak of general war was a paramount consideration. Although impatient with British caution, the Americans recognized an overriding need for allied support in general war giving British views the capacity to exercise a restraining influence.
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23 See record of the Fifth meeting between President Truman and Mr Attlee at the White House, 7 December 1950, ZP3/3, FO 371/124949; Washington to FO, No 3315, 7 December 1950, FO 115/4521, TNA; memorandum for the record by Philip C. Jessup, ‘Excerpt from meeting between the President and Prime Minister in the Cabinet Room of the White House, December 7, 1950’, 711.5611/1–1653, CDF, RG 59, USNA. See also Young, ‘No blank cheque’, p. 1145.
24 See Arneson memorandum for the record, 16 January 1951, 711.5611/1–1653, CDF, RG 59. There is some dispute over who actually drafted the statement for the communiqué, with Gordon Arneson, Acheson's Special Assistant for Atomic Energy matters, claiming authorship, and contesting the popular version found in Acheson, Present at the creation, p. 484, where Sir Oliver Franks is given the credit; see R. Gordon Arneson oral history, Harry S. Truman Library. See also Danchev, Alex, Oliver Franks: founding father (Oxford, 1993), pp. 130–1Google Scholar, which recounts the Franks version.
25 See Caridi, Ronald J., The Korean War and American politics: the Republican party as a test case (Philadelphia, PA, 1968), pp. 124–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also the Arneson oral history (cited above) where domestic political pressures on the administration are stressed, with Robert Lovett remarking that ‘One of the main reasons we got the modus vivendi through was to kill the Quebec agreement which had given the U.K. the veto on the use of atomic weapons.’
26 On this point, see Christopher E. Steel to Makins, 5 January 1951, and Makins to Steel, 15 January 1951, FO 115/4525, TNA.
27 See Franks to Makins, No 3411, 14 December 1950, FO 115/4521, TNA. See also Young, ‘No Blank Cheque’, p. 1146–7.
28 See Steel to Makins, No 3433, 16 December 1950, FO 115/4521, TNA.
29 See Makins to Steel, No 5729, 22 December 1950, FO 115/4521, TNA.
30 Steel minute, 27 December 1950, FO 115/4521, TNA.
31 Makins minute for Bevin, 19 January 1951, Yasamee, H. J. and Hamilton, K. A. (eds), Documents on British policy overseas, series II, volume IV, Korea, 1950–1951 (London, 1991), pp. 310–11Google Scholar; the exchanges over the communiqué are also briefly mentioned in Gowing, Independence and deterrence, p. 314. For the American account of this exchange, see Jessup memorandum for the record, 9 January 1951, 711.5611/1–1653, CDF, RG 59, USNA.
32 See CM 85(50)2, 12 December 1950, CAB 195/8, TNA. The newly released Cabinet notebooks give a better flavour of Attlee's sentiments here than the dry Cabinet minutes in CAB 128.
33 See ‘Facts Bearing on the Problem’, Annex I, 25 February 1953, 711.5611/3–1253, CDF, RG 59, USNA.
34 Steel to Makins, 22 October 1951, FO 115/4525, TNA.
35 Attlee to Churchill, 3 December 1950, PREM 8/1559, TNA.
36 Churchill to Attlee, 8 February 1951; Attlee to Churchill, 9 February 1951; Churchill to Attlee, 12 February 1951; Attlee to Churchill, 14 February 1951, PREM 8/1559, TNA.
37 Close consultation between US and British officials over the best tactics to employ when replying to Churchill's letter was evident throughout, see Washington (Franks) to Foreign Office (for Prime Minister), No 488, 15 February 1951; Washington (Steel) to Foreign Office (for Makins), No 524, 19 February 1951; Washington (Steel) to Foreign Office (for Makins), No 550, 21 February 1951; Washington (Franks) to Foreign Office (for Makins), No 567, 23 February 1951; Attlee to Churchill, 22 February 1951, PREM 8/1559, TNA. One result of this exchange, it is likely, was omission of any mention of the Quebec Agreement from the fifth volume of Churchill's war memoirs; see also Reynolds, David, In command of history: Churchill fighting and writing the Second World War (London, 2004), pp. 400–1Google Scholar.
38 See Confidential Annex to COS(51)6th meeting, 9 January 1951, DEFE 32/4, TNA; and Gowing, Independence and deterrence, I, pp. 315–6.
39 Minutes of a meeting held 15 January 1951, COS(51)34, 20 January 1951, DEFE 5/27, TNA.
40 ‘Atomic Warfare’, COS(51)106, 27 February 1951, DEFE 32/4, TNA.
41 COS(51)42nd meeting, Staff Conference held at No 10 Downing Street, 6 March 1951, DEFE 32/4, TNA; COS(51)50th meeting, Staff Conference held at No 10 Downing Street, 20 March 1951, DEFE 20/1, TNA; Air Chief Marshal Sir William Elliot to Lieutenant General Sir Kenneth McLean, 22 May 1951; ‘Atomic Warfare’, Note by the Secretary, COS(51)311, 28 May 1951, DEFE 20/1, TNA.; see also Young, ‘No blank cheque’, p. 1149–52.
42 Substance of discussion at joint state department-JCS meeting, 24 January 1951, Records of State-JCS Meetings, 1951–59, Meeting Summaries Project Files, Lot File 61 D 417, box 50, RG 59, USNA.
43 Substance of discussion at joint state department-JCS meeting, 27 June 1951, Records of State-JCS Meetings, 1951–59, Meeting Summaries Project Files, Lot File 61 D 417, box 50, RG 59, USNA.
44 Franks to Makins, 20 July 1951, DEFE 20/1, TNA.
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51 Franks to Strang, 20 October 1951, DEFE 20/1, TNA.
52 Report by the Directors of Plans, ‘Atomic Warfare’, JP(51)209(Final), 30 November 1951, and attached COS(51)106(Revised), DEFE 20/1, TNA.
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58 See Franks letter to Strang, 26 April 1952, DEFE 20/2, TNA. The US officials attending the talks had included Paul Nitze, the head of the state department's Policy Planning Staff, H. Freeman Matthews, the Deputy Under-Secretary of State, and General Bradley, the Chairman of the JCS.
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62 Washington (from Eden) to Foreign Office (for Churchill), No. 531, 9 March 1953, PREM 11/431, TNA. The American records for these March 1953 meetings are by far the richer source for capturing their significance.
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65 Memorandum of discussion at the 168th meeting of the NSC, 29 October 1953, Declassified Documents Reference System, online version, document number CK3100568467. The record of this meeting published by the state department in the early 1980s omitted all reference to the issue of consultation with the British over nuclear use, see FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. II: national security affairs, part 2 (Washington, 1984), p. 568Google Scholar.
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69 Dixon minute, 5 December 1953, FK1078/8G, FO 371/105540, TNA.
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