Reproduced from the Unclassified I Declassified Holdings of the National Archives DECLA S Sll' mD AuthorityJjiJD S î 15 J 1hi GOl I ·lJ _ q'f ' 3 c THE FOREIGN SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA SECRET Official-Informal AIoorican Embassy The Hague Nether Lands March 15 1957 Dear Bruce Here is the further letter I promised you en the subject of Defense Minister Stafis visit to Washington It may contain information you already have but better to give you toot toon to omit something Minister Staf leaves here on March 26 arriving in NewYork on the 27tho He wil be accoapanded by General McQueenand Mr Jacob Everts who is now acting head of Military-Economie Affairs in thc Foreign Office since van der Beugel moved up to become State Secretary The General and Everls wiil proceed direct to Washington f'rom NewYork to complete final arrangements for Staf' s Washington visit The Minister will visit Fort Sill ou March 28-30 where he will see a demonstratiou of modern weapons en Sunday March 31 he will be in Baltimore and will proceed to Washington on April 1 On April 3 he returns to New York leaving there aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam on April 4 While we have not haard finally from staf about the subjecte he will wish to dd scuse t he agenda to date as we knos it will include the following subjecte 1 M e _ RQ l L As you al ready know we have informed staf of our intentions regarding the Honest Johns and the conversion kits and the MAAG is now in t he process of sending him a letter setting forth the conditions to be accepted by the Netherlands prior to Betion by tbs MAAG in recommending that these wapons be pravided t o the Netherlands Armed Forces As this subject is so current and undoubtedly is meving faster in Washington than we know here there is little else to be saäd on the subject The only thing I might add is that those who talk with Staf might be reminded toot jj _ a he who auggested at the NATOmeeting last December that when U S dua L-purpose weapons have been stationed in Dutch snd oth61 NATOterritory tbs atondc warheads also be stored t1iëi êûnder Tl S cont'rol ior useby t 1ëriutch and otber NATO1OO1OOe1'8 snouldan '-ëmergeîicy rèquire I should add that we have had some correspolldence Br ceMo Lancaster Esquire Office of Western European Affaire Department of state tashington D C - SECIrel' Q d from the Unclassified I Declassified Holdings of the National Archives DECLA S Sll' Authority kJND l1è D 13 5 SECRE'l' a t2 a corz-eapondence with Leeaard direetly interested in this Unger al this subject and he will part of the talies with Staf $ -r '- - p ' I_' 1-' '' be I ' J I 2 S Esx epart a Although the Dutch have knosn for some time that they Wiu be responsible for providing their O' rnspare part s the MAAG finds that they have as yetmade no arrangements t or purchasing the parte nor iÓ -f iët- oo' e 'ti ïêy dÊÎstabllshedbhe necesaary organization wit l 't -'1WAF ' t JJr'anchciil·ectly 'coricerned ' Thëre ls'd1fficu1 ty iIlvolved in committing funds nos for 1958 emoe the funds have yet to be appropriated - hence the delay in arranging to purebase spare parts The MAAG is wo1'king this with Staf and his people and they expect 'to beä 5 l J o' find a satisfactory s lution As to the neceseary organä sa • tional arrangcm3nts these have apparently been pilt off because of the finanoial prob Iem ijQ t ye r _-t 1e MAAG bas urged Staf t o go ahe lld nes ao that the organization vill be rèadY tomdie 'when the'finaricfar'questions hj vi 3 straightened out This he bas now decäded to do ·'' 3 ArnWre9 j 9n$ Nowtha t4 _DJ i h_ is beip g l' 1J Qtad irom 5-1 J divisions to 4-1 J divisions result ng eve ltual1y in 2 ive d_ivisio s rat her bhan 1 with the other 2-1 3 divisio l§ 1 ing t eserv e I t hELque tj pn i_ses p -p-ossi lÈ esa i lo' Staf has two concerns in this respect First he faars that there may be a premature decäsd on to remove trom the Netherlands the excesa materiel pr-oduced by the Army reorganizatian hafore it bas been possible to make a cleer determinatian hov much materiel wiU be excesa The MAAG has z-easeured him on this point Hls secend concern stems from t he tact that he would like to be abIe t o keep at iê'ä-St -sorne of 'thc exeess materiel fOl training pU 'P9f 3es6 tw s bas been able to give Mm noässurances o - - score the MAAG ' '0 Hiiïever 'oo --- ' This appears to complete the roster of subjeets 50 far as we now know Ii' there are others which we subsequently learn Staf intends to 1'ai5e we will endeavor to let you know in time In any case General MeQueenwill be fully briefed and s ince he wil he in Wash l nt -rton severaï days be fore Staf arrivee I think it l vouldbe a goed thing for you te get in t ouch with him Besddes he is a Marine General and a goed guy so you shou Id certainly knoa him Sineerely William B Dunham -SECREl' r •• ' f This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu Read related article US Nuclear Weapons in the Netherlands A First Appraisal 2021-01-08