' SECRET MEf-l RANDtJM FOR THE P SIDENT SUBJECT NATO Nuclear Safeguards Attached is a preliminary answer to the August 31 memorandum you sent Secretary McNcmara asking that General Partridge'a National Coaroand and Control Task Force give urgent attention to C1Casures to strengthen control over nuclcer weapons in NATO Eux'ope during the Berlin crisis Your orandum referred to possible measures in respect of 1 custody ii deployment and 111 cOIIlll4nd and coimiunicatione facilities ··Toe report's conclusions 1n respect of each of these types of meaoures follow 1 Custody nie report states that safeguards against accidental nuclear detonation and against unfriendly sei urc of we pons e3rmarlted for illi forces re adequate It rec0tt1J1enrl6 a number of meaaurec to ctrengthen Of custodial 1 1 ocedures in order to safeguard ap aint t seizure of weapons earmar ked for non-US UATO units 2 Deploent Thi aubject is treated in the following sentence From our limited inapections I General Pnrtridge consider C' eneral Norstad'n NATO_weapons dcploymc nt to be appropriate to the i-ituation and t o the ncccs ity for retaining wcaponu control ThiG sentence was not in the first draft of the report snd was insexted Nhen it was pointed out that thi s draft did not cover one of the ffllljor points in your memorandU111 of 31 August Hembere of the Ta lc Force have indi cated that it did not focus on this question during its recent trip t o Europe It may be useful to encourage DOD to give thic oub_1ect further study You will recall that Ge nerai Nore tad referred during hi meeting with you to his desire to avoid ' · 4• REPRO IUC£0 AT Tl E NATIOHAl ARCHIVES ' SECRET - 2 - avoid making nuclear weapons available to front line units which might be inlpelled to use then in ord to void destruction or seizure by the enemy At other tix lcs he has spoken of the poosibility of deploying nuclear weapons to special tmits 4ttached to the highest coni n lnd level consistent with their operational effectiveness 12nd has mentioned the corps artillery an ilogy Members of the Task Force are unaware of 4DY action actual or planned - to imploment either of these poseibilities Mr Ache aon's report to you concerning NATO recOO'lllended that both of these poasibilitios be atudied ''so as to reduce the ri ok of unauthorized use of nuclear we4pons in the NATO area without subjecting them to such complex and unwidely proceduren as would unduly reduce their operatioruil effcctivcneso 1' Mr Acheaon had argued that our ability to avoid auto natic escalation fran non-nuclear hostilities into nuclear war and to undertake selective and limited use of nuclear weapon would be compromised by lack of effective safeguards You will recall t e Joint Congress ional Com nittee' s concern in this general area 3 Coumand and Coammications The report makes two points here It states that ' OPIPftllders of US nuclearcapable field units have been directed not to fire or to mako final preparations for firing nuclear weapons without specific llUthority emanating from CINCEU71 - It points out that the effectiveness of controls oe inst such unauthorized use will be further impro rcd when the permissive link is at hand It urges that development c1nd production of this device which will toke a number of l IOilths be afforded priority in AEC and DOD so tha t it s availability c an be expedited The ''permissive link'' is a c0111bination lock which the Secretary of Defense has directed be de 'eloped and which would need to be opened to t Ot'lllit firing of tho warhead the combiruttion_ for the lock would only be com aunicated to custodianc at the moment firing was authorized a b The SRCR8'1' - SECRET - 3 - 'lhe Task Force fears that coarnand coatrol and c0UJD11nication facilities in NATO Europe are so vulnorable that nuclear weapons there might be destroyed before firing could be authori 7 od with due ·regard to present safety occurity nnd release procedures suggestions f or strengthening rOIJl1lond and C0r 111Ullication facilities - ill it states be made at the earliest practicable date b 4 R ecCW1oOdation A proposed letter is attached for your signature thaaking Sec-retary McNamara for this report and indicating your continuing interest in some of the issues indicated above • Attachments Proposod letter to s cretary McNamara SECRET ' REPIIOOuc Eo ' THE NATIONAi AAc vu SECRET Dear Bob I am grateful for your lettor of October 7 forwarding a preliminary Tesk Force report on Safety Measures Re• la ting to the Use of Nuclear '1eapons 1n NATO 11 I welcome the indication that measures will be taken 1 to strengthen US custodial safeguards ogoinst unauthorized uao of nuclear weapons by non-OS NATO units 4nd 11 to hasten development and production of tho pex nissive link by according it priority in both the DOD and AEC I hope that these r ieasures will be pressed vigorously so that they will bo more likely to take effect during the Berlin crisis I al10 welcome the indication that measures to strengthen comnand control and communications facilities in NATO Europe will be considered in the Task Force's next report I hope that the question of nuclear weapons deployment which was· referred to in my memorandum of August 31 and which is briefly mentioned in this report can also receive continuing attention It would be interesting to kn what action General Nor3tad hod in mind wben he spoke 1n our recent meeting of ensuring that weaponc wore not available to front line units Would this have any effect on deploymer t to NATO forces t least before the pcrmisnivo linl- is available of weaponn £-uch s the Davy Crockett who e effectlveness depends on their being 1n the handa of front line forces I should be gratef-ul if this whole range of issueA could be subjected The Honorable Roberts McNamara Secretary of Deftlnse SECRET ' SECRET - 2 - be subjected to continuing review with periodic reports being subaiitted to me as to the cone lusions which you reach Would you please apreaa my appreciation to those who prepared th1a report for the time and caro t ihich they devoted to this important task I believe that their work and resulting improved safeguards will make a direct contribution to our national security Sincerely SECRET ' NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE 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 The U S Nuclear Presence in Western Europe 1954-1962 Part II 2020-09-17