Date

Nov 28, 1966

Description

Further review by ACDA and State Department lawyers concluded that the language would “not disturb existing bilateral relationships,” that is, arrangements to provide U.S. nuclear weapons stockpiled in NATO countries for the use of West German forces and other allies in the event of war.

The draft article I “would have no bearing on the decisions of the NATO countries to go to war” because if that happened, the NPT would be irrelevant and the United States would be free to transfer weapons to its non-nuclear allies. Non-transfer would also apply to the United Kingdom, the U.S.’s closest nuclear ally, but would not disturb existing arrangements to share nuclear weapons information. The language would not prohibit European multilateral arrangements involving sharing delivery systems, as long as nuclear weapons were not transferred. The language would also not “bar succession by a federated European state to the nuclear status of one of its former components.”

Source

RG 383, Director's Office NPT Files, box 4, Non-Proliferation Treaty. United States, 1966

Document published in following posting(s):

The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the German Nuclear Question Part II, 1965-1969

Mar 21, 2018