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The US Nuclear History: Nuclear Arms and Politics in the Missile Age, 1955-1968 microfilm collection presents an integrated record of US decision making relating to the development, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons, 1955-1968. Documents are generated from a number of sources including the US Department of State, US Department of Defense, US Air Force, US Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Strategic Air Command, the Executive Office of the President, US National Security Council, and Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Material relating to early US policy planning and decisions on thermonuclear weapons includes relevance studies by the RAND Corporation, a US non-partisan government policy guidance institution, 1952; memoranda from the Office of the White House relating to nuclear weapons stockpiles and projections, 1959; and, memoranda from the US Department of State and the Atomic Energy Commission relating to underground and atmospheric nuclear testing, 1959-62. Papers relating to nuclear weapons development, acquisition and testing include memoranda from Gen Curtis E LeMay, Commander-in-Chief, US Strategic Air Command, relating to increased budgetary needs for the proposed nuclear build-up, Jan 1956; memorandum from Gen Andrew Jackson Goodpaster, Defense Liaison Officer and Staff Secretary to the President, relating to the concept of 'massive retaliation' in the event of a Soviet first-strike, May 1956; memorandum from the US Joint Chiefs of Staff relating to emergency war plans, nuclear strategy, and preventive war, Sep 1956; memorandum from the Gen Lyman L Lemnitzer, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, relating to US doctrine on thermonuclear attack, Apr 1961; memorandum from the US Department of Defense to President John Fitzgerald Kennedy relating to scenarios for US and Soviet first-strikes, Oct 1961; memorandum from Secretary of Defense Robert Strange McNamara to the Office of the Secretary, US Army, relating to nuclear damage limitation and 'assured destruction'. Papers relating to nuclear strategy and planning include memoranda concerning the applicability of Soviet cities as targets of US nuclear attack; the US Strategic Air Command Basic War Plan, [Feb 1960]; papers relating to target co-ordination and planning for a functional Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP), 1960-1961; papers on 'war-gaming', net evaluation exercises of US capabilites in the event of a general nuclear war with the Soviet Union, including memoranda from Robert R Bowie, Director of US State Department Policy Planning Staff, concerning Soviet capabilities to inflict direct damage on the US, 1953-1967. Material relating to air, land and sea nuclear delivery systems, missile deployments, alert programs, and defence appropriations include memoranda from Goodpaster concerning Eisenhower's endorsement plans for missile program acceleration and for upgrading US Strategic Air Command capabilities, 1957; memoranda from the President's Science Advisory Committee relating to the construction of civil defence structures and missile deployments, 1958; report from the US Department of Defense, Weapons Systems Evaluation Group, reviewing US weapons systems and directly-related functions which constitute the strategic offensive posture of the US 1964-1967; press statements and memoranda from US Secretary of Defence McNamara relating to the doctine of 'assured destruction', defence appropriations, and weapons development, 1961-66; US National Security Briefings on strategic intelligence, Soviet capabilities for strategic attack, anti-missile and air defence, and economic trends, 1963. Papers relating to nuclear strategy, planning, weapons and delivery systems in the European theatre include reports regarding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's strategy for nuclear war, 1954-1969; the deployment of Chrysler 'Jupiter' PGM-19 IRBMs in Western Europe; the establishment of the Douglas 'Thor' PGM-17 IRBM program in Great Britain, 1956-1963; the escalation of US-Soviet hostilies in Berlin, 1961; reports concerning British co-operation with with US Strategic Air Command; speech by US Secretary of State McNamara, in Athens, Greece, relating to US assurances to its European allies in the event of a general war, 1962. Papers relating to nuclear warning and defence include reports from the US Department of State concerning the immediate construction of a Distant Early Warning (DEW) system in Canada and Alaska, 1952-1953; reports from the President's Science Advisory Committee, including studies of civil defence measures in the event of a nuclear attack, 1957-1958; reports from the US Department of State regarding the construction of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) in the United Kingdom, 1958; memoranda from the North American Aerospace Command (NORAD), relating to nuclear pre- emption and tactical warnings, 1958-1959; reports from the President's Science Advisory Committee's Anti-Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Panel, 1958-1959; papers from the President's Science Advisory Committee and the US Department of Defense relating to the construction and deployment of Bell Laboratory Nike-Zeus and Nike X Anti-Ballistic Missiles (ABMs) in the US, Canada, and Western Europe, 1959-1968.

Memos of the Special Assistant for National Security Affairs: McGeorge Bundy to President Johnson, 1963-1966 are microfilmed copies of declassified memoranda relating primarily to American foreign policy, 1963-1966. The papers include Bundy's comments on the Alliance for Progress; atomic energy; the Atlantic Nuclear Force; European security; relations with the People's Republic of China; foreign assistance; the Vietnam War; the International Monetary Fund; the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO); the Test Ban Treaty; and the United Nations. Reels include specific mention of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 29 Nov 1963; meetings with former President Dwight David Eisenhower, 9 Dec 1963; visit by French President Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle; interview with First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, 5 Mar 1964; the French split with NATO; press attacks on Latin American policy, 25 Mar 1964; National Security Council meeting relating to Indochina, 15 May 1964, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports relating to the Cuban assassination of alleged agents, 3 Jun 1964; the civil crisis in the Congo, 1964; meeting with John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M Warburg Professor of Economics, Harvard University, 15 Jul 1964; reports from the US ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam, Maxwell Taylor, 1964; statement on the Gulf of Tonkin Decision, 15 Aug 1964; correspondence with Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie relating to economic aid to Congo, 20 Aug 1964; the escalation of the Gulf of Tonkin 'incident', 18 Sep-6 Oct 1964; United Kingdom Arms Purchase Program, 26 Oct 1964; correspondence with British Prime Minister Rt Hon (James) Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx; meeting with UN Secretary General U Thant concerning North Vietnamese aggression at the Gulf of Tonkin, 5 Aug 1964; meetings with CIA Director John McCone, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, and Secretary of State Dean Rusk; the revolt in the Dominican Republic, 1965; the Warren Commission Report, 7 Jul 1965; and the Kashmir Crisis, 1965

Papers relating to V Adm Sir John Wilson Musgrave Eaton's life and career, 1945-1972, including typescript copy of Night Order Book, HMS SHEFFIELD, May-Jun 1945; photographs, press cuttings and printed material relating to Eaton's service as Capt of HMS ST VINCENT, RN Boys Training Establishment, Gosport, Hampshire, 1947; typescript volume entitled 'Naval Staff Handbook', Royal Naval Staff College, Greenwich, 1950; texts of lectures by Eaton, RN Staff College, Greenwich, including 'Grand strategy: its background and application in a future war' and 'The principles of war', 1950-1951; typescript texts of speeches and lectures, [1952]-1960, including Empire Day speech to the Royal Yacht Sqn, Australia [1952], and lecture on the capture of Gibraltar, 1704, to the RN Club, 1960; newspaper cuttings relating to the Court Martial of Able Seaman James McNiven McSporran for an assault on V Adm Eaton during an inspection, 1955; Civil Defence manuals and naval publications, 1956-1958; edition of Log of the President's cruise in the USS CANBERRA (CAG2), edited by Capt E P Aurand, US Navy, Naval Aide to US President Dwight David Eisenhower, 14-20 Mar 1957; photographs of Eisenhower with Eaton and US Adm Jerauld Wright, Supreme Allied Commander's Headquarters, Norfolk, Virginia, USA [1957]; typescript letters to retired senior officers from the First Sea Lord 1959, 1970 and 1972, from AF Louis (Francis Albert Victor Nicholas) Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, 23 Apr 1959, Adm Sir Michael Le Fanu, 1 Jun 1970, and Adm Sir Michael (Patrick) Pollock, 2 Nov 1972; printed plan of Admiralty organisation, Jan 1960; typescript statement of evidence by Eaton, as then commanding destroyer HMS SOMALI, on Cdr (Jack) John Egerton Broome's command of convoy PQ.17, 4 Jul 1942, statement prepared for a libel action brought by Broome against David John Cawdell Irving, Jan 1970, in relation to his book The destruction of convoy PQ.17 (Cassell, London, 1968).