The 1950 ‘Ambassador's agreement’ on USAF bases in the UK and British fears of US atomic unilateralism

Abstract

The article explores the 1950 ‘Ambassador's Agreement’ (named after US Ambassador Lewis Douglas) about establishing long-term US air bases in the UK. During the discussions British representatives expressed resentment of American pressure and were concerned about the expense that developing the bases for American purposes might entail. There were even fears that Washington might use the airfields to launch an atomic bomb attack on the USSR without regard to the views of the UK government. The British consented to providing the bases because they wanted to enmesh the US further in UK and Western European defence. For their part American negotiators had wanted to further US atomic strategy without delay. Although the agreement imposed no restriction on the use of the airfields, some US officials believed that in a crisis the UK government might try to prevent them being used for atomic bombing missions.

Key words:

• Anglo-American relations
• air bases
• atomic bomb

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Michael O'Grady, Len Scott, Jake Widén and John W. Young for their valuable help with this paper. Funding from the British Academy (Small Grant 40265) enabled research at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, and at the National Archives, Kew. Thanks also to the editors of this publication and to the anonymous referee.

Notes

¹Simon Duke, US Defence Bases in the UK (London/Basingstoke: Macmillan 1987), 55. See also idem, US Military Forces and Installations in Europe (Oxford: OUP 1989), 298.

²David Gates, ‘American Strategic Bases in Britain: The Agreements Governing their Use’, Comparative Strategy 8 (1989), 99–123; C.T. Sandars, America's Overseas Garrisons: The Leasehold Empire (Oxford: OUP 2000), 84–5.

³The summit communiqué said only that the US intended to keep the British government ‘informed’ of any developments which might change the situation concerning the use of atomic weapons. This fell short of an agreement to engage in consultation. See e.g. John Baylis, ‘American bases in Britain: The “Truman-Attlee Understandings”’, The World Today 42/8–9 (Aug./Sept. 1986), 155–9; Stephen Twigge and Len Scott, Planning Armageddon: Britain, the US and the Command of Nuclear Forces, 1945–1964 (London: Harwood Academic Press 2000), 36; Alan Dobson, Anglo-American Relations in the Twentieth Century: Of Friendship, Conflict and the Rise and Decline of Superpowers (London: Routledge 1995), 107.

⁴See, for example, David Gee, ‘US Military and Intelligence Bases in the UK: A Briefing’, available at <http://nfpb.gn.apc.org/basesu_s.pdf>.

⁵Duke, US Defence Bases, 20–9.

⁶Patrick E. Murray, ‘An Initial Response to the Cold War: The Build-up of the US Air Force in the UK 1948–1956’, in Roger G. Miller (ed.), Seeing off the Bear: Anglo-American Air Power Cooperation during the Cold War (Washington DC: Air Force History and Museums Program USAF 1995), 20.

⁷Duke, US Defence Bases, 50–1.

⁸Quoted in Richard Aldrich, The Hidden Hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence (London: John Murray 2002), 231.

⁹H[arry] S T[ruman Presidential] L[ibrary, Independence, Missouri], PSF: Subject File 1940–53, NSC Meetings File, Box 178, Folder: Meeting 36: 22 March 1949 (2/2), Secretary of Defence to Executive Secretary NSC, 17 March 1949.

¹⁰Sandars, America's Overseas Garrisons, 84.

¹¹Murray, ‘Build-up of the US Air Force’, in Miller, Seeing off the Bear, 20.

¹²National Archives, Kew, London, FO 371/90016, AU11913/26, ‘Short Note on Facilities for US Air Forces’, Appendix C: ‘Airfields Required by the USAF in UK’, Air Ministry, 20 Feb. 1950. Unless indicated otherwise all documentary references are to the National Archives, Kew.

¹³FO 371/90016 WU11913/47G, ‘Use of Airfields by US Forces’, meeting of 18 March 1950.

¹⁴Murray, ‘Build-up of the US Air Force’, in Miller, Seeing off the Bear, 20.

¹⁵In a memo to Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Douglas rejected the charge of misrepresenting the talk with Bevin by saying that his record of the meeting was little different from that of the British record. Douglas maintained that either Louis Johnson had garbled his verbal recitation of the discussion in further talks with Chancellor Stafford Cripps, or Cripps had garbled it on hearing it from Johnson. Whatever the case, the Ambassador continued to be seen as the reason for the misunderstanding, at least by the British. FO 371/90016, WU11913/38G, Shuckburgh to Cooper (Air Ministry), 17 March 1950; HSTL, Dean Acheson Papers, Secretary of State File 1945–72, Memoranda of Conversations 1949–53, Douglas to Acheson, 1 Dec. 1949.

¹⁶FO 371/90016, WU11913/38G, Shuckburgh to Cooper (Air Ministry), 17 March 1950.

¹⁷FO 371/90016, WU 11913/26, ‘Facilities for US Air Forces: Note on Issues affecting the Air Ministry’, Air Ministry, 20 Feb. 1950.

¹⁸FO 371/90015, WU 11913/16G, Memo from Shuckburgh to Jebb, 26 Jan. 1950.

¹⁹FO 371/90015, WU 11913/16G, Shuckburgh minute, 30 Jan. 1950.

²⁰FO 371/90016, WU11913/36, Note from Shuckburgh to Jebb, 10 March 1950.

²¹HSTL, Harry S. Truman Papers, SMOF, Naval Aide Files, State Dept Briefs, Box 23, Folder: Jan.–April 1950, Summary of Telegrams, 9 Jan. 1950.

²²FO 371/90016, WU11913/37G, Washington to FO, 11 March 1950.

²³FO 371/90016, WU11913/34G, minute from unknown official, ‘US request for expenditure …’, 13 March 1950.

²⁴FO 371/90016, WU11913/45G, ‘American Air Bases: Proposed Negotiations with Mr. Douglas’, 14 March 1950.

²⁵DEFE 7/516, ‘US Air Force Groups in the UK (Memorandum by the Minister of State for the Defence Committee)’, undated.

²⁶William W. Suit, ‘The Transfer of B-29s to the Royal Air Force under the Military Defense Assistance Program’, in Miller, Seeing off the Bear, 101.

²⁷DEFE 7/516, ‘US Air Force Groups in the UK (Memorandum by the Minister of State for the Defence Committee)’, undated.

²⁸FO 371/90016, WU 11913/26, Air Ministry, ‘Short Note on Facilities for US Air Forces’, 20 Feb. 1950. See also Suit, ‘The Transfer of B-29s’, in Miller, Seeing off the Bear, 101–16.

²⁹Twigge and Scott, Planning Armageddon, 31–2.

³⁰FO 371/90015, WU 11913/16G, P. Pares minute, 10 March 1950.

³¹FO 371/90015, WU 11913/15, Shuckburgh minute, 30 Jan. 1950.

³²FO 371/90015, WU 11913/15, Fitzmaurice minute, 1 Feb. 1950.

³³FO 371/90015, WU 11913/15, Shuckburgh minute, 2 Feb. 1950.

³⁴John Dumbrell, A Special Relationship: Anglo-American Relations in the Cold War and After (Basingstoke: Macmillan 2001), 130.

³⁵The British documents indicate that the US had more or less abandoned interest in the airfield, but American documents indicate continued interest in its development. On 17 March 1949 Johnson submitted a memo to the National Security Council (NSC) raising the need for the US to have use of the Abu Sueir airfield as well as the Oxfordshire bases for a strategic air offensive. In a progress report to the NSC on 31 Oct. 1950, Philip C. Jessup, Ambassador at Large, noted that the RAF had made some improvements to the field. However, in a NSC meeting ten days later Dean Acheson noted that ‘this situation is getting worse … since the Egyptians have told the British to get out’. Egyptian nationalism meant that by 1955 the British would no longer have a foothold in Egypt. HSTL, Harry Truman Papers, PSF, Box 178, Folder: Meeting 36 (2/2), Johnson (Secretary of Defence) to Exec. Secretary National Security Council, 17 March 1949; HSTL, Harry Truman Papers, PSF, Box 181, Folder: Meetings 71, Jessup to James Lay (Exec. Secretary NSC), 31 Oct. 1950; HSTL, Harry Truman Papers, PSF, Box 187; Folder: Memos for the Pres., Meetings, Discussions 1950, Memo for the President, 10 Nov. 1950.

³⁶FO 371/90016, WU11913/46G, ‘Facilities for the USAF: Note of Meeting at Air Ministry – 16 March 1950’.

³⁷FO 371/90016, WU 11913/26, Air Ministry, ‘Short Note on Facilities for US Air Forces’, 20 Feb. 1950.

³⁸FO 371/90015, WU 11913/26, P. Pares minute, 10 March 1950.

³⁹FO 371/90016, WU11913/46G, ‘Facilities for the USAF: Note of Meeting at Air Ministry – 16 March 1950’.

⁴⁰FO 371/90016, WU11913/47G, ‘Use of Airfields by US Forces’, meeting of 18 March 1950.

⁴¹FO 371/90016, WU11913/48G, ‘Draft, Prime Minister, Airfields for US Forces’, (day illegible) March 1950.

⁴³FO 371/90017, WU11913/52G, Crawley to Douglas (draft), 28 March 1950.

⁴²FO 371/90016, WU11913/49G, Shuckburgh to Strang, ‘American Air Bases’, 22 March 1950.

⁴⁴HSTL, Dean Acheson Papers, Secretary of State File 1945–72, Memoranda of Conversations 1949–53, conversation between Acheson and Douglas et al., 7 March 1950.

⁴⁵FO 371/90017, WU11913/54G, Douglas to Crawley, 30 March 1950.

⁴⁶FO 371/90017, WU11913/52G, memo to F. Cooper (Air Ministry) from unknown author, 30 March 1950.

⁴⁷FO 371/90017, WU11913/54G, Shuckburgh minute, 31 March 1950.

⁴⁸Ibid.

⁴⁹Ibid.

⁵⁰HSTL, Dean Acheson Papers, Secretary of State File 1945–72, Memoranda of Conversations 1949–53, conversation between Acheson and Douglas et al., 7 March 1950.

⁵¹FO 371/90017, WU11913/54G, Shuckburgh minute, 31 March 1950.

⁵²FO 371/90016, WU11913/36G, ‘Defence Committee: Facilities for the US Air Force (Note by Minister of Defence)’, 14 March 1950.

⁵³FO 371/90017, WU11913/58G, Shuckburgh to Secretary of State, 24 March 1950.

⁵⁴FO 371/90017, WU11913/66G, Shuckburgh to Secretary of State, 12 April 1950.

⁵⁵FO 371/90017, WU11913/70G, Crawley to Douglas, 15 April 1950.

⁵⁶Margaret Gowing, Independence and Deterrence: Britain and Atomic Energy, 1945–52, Vol. I. (London: Macmillan 1974), 310; Ian Clark and Nicholas Wheeler, The British Origins of Nuclear Strategy 1945–1955 (Clarendon: Oxford 1989), 123.

⁵⁷John Baylis, Anglo-American Defence Relations, 1939–1984 (London: Macmillan 1984), 40.

⁶⁰Ibid.

⁶¹FO 371/90017, WU11913/73G, officials' minutes, 16–23 May 1950.

⁵⁸FO 371/90016, WU11913/44G, Gladwyn Jebb, ‘Appendix to Brief for Defence Committee, Item 3’, 14 March 1950.

⁵⁹FO 371/90016, WU11913/44G, Gladwyn Jebb, ‘Points to be made by the Secretary of State at the Meeting of the Defence Committee’, 14 March 1950.

⁶²Ibid.

⁶³Ibid.

⁶⁴FO 371/90017, WU11913/73G, Shuckburgh to Dixon, 2 June 1950.

⁶⁵Twigge and Scott, Planning Armageddon, 35.

⁶⁶FO 371/90017, WU11913/73G, Shuckburgh to Dixon, 2 June 1950.

⁶⁷FO 371/90017, WU11913/73G, various minutes on Shuckburgh to Dixon memo of 2 June 1950.

⁶⁸Quoted in Clark and Wheeler, British Origins of Nuclear Strategy, 138.

⁶⁹Ibid.

⁷⁰HSTL, Harry S. Truman Papers, PSF, Box 154, Folder: Embassies, Box 154, author unknown, British and European Report, 17 Aug. 1951.

⁷¹HSTL, Harry S. Truman Papers, SMOF: Naval Aide File, Box 25, Summary of Telegrams, 10 Oct. 1952.

⁷²Quoted in Aldrich, Hidden Hand, 390.

⁷³Quoted in ibid.

⁷⁴Quoted in ibid.

⁷⁵Dobson, Anglo-American Relations, 108.

⁷⁶HSTL, Harry S. Truman Papers, NSF: Subject Files, NSC: Atomic File, Box 175, Folder: Atomic Weapons Procedures for Use, Gleason to Truman, enclosing study dated 11 June 1952 on procedures for obtaining advice when called upon to consider the use of atomic weapons.

⁷⁷Quoted in Aldrich, Hidden Hand, 390–1.

⁷⁸Ibid., 391.

⁷⁹Ibid., 207. Britain would explode an atomic (fission) bomb in Oct. 1952 and thermonuclear (fusion) ones during tests in 1957–58.

⁸⁰US National Archives, College Park, Maryland, RG 59, Central Decimal File 611.41, Box 2768, author unknown, ‘US-British Relations’, 18 Feb. 1950.

⁸¹FO 371/90015, WU 11913/15, Fitzmaurice minute, 1 Feb. 1950.

⁸²Clark and Wheeler, British Origins of Nuclear Strategy, 136.