Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Condit, Kenneth W. The Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Policy, 1955–1956 / Kenneth W. Condit. p. cm. (History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; v. 6) Includes index. 1. United States. Joint Chiefs of Staff-History. 2. United States Military policy I. Title. II. Series. UA23.7.C66 1992 355.3'3042'0973-dc20 92-5249 CIP For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Foreword Established during World War II to advise the President regarding the strategic direction of the armed forces, the Joint Chiefs of Staff continued in existence after the war. As military advisers and planners, they have played a significant role in the development of national security policy. Knowledge of their relations with the President, the National Security Council, and the Secretary of Defense in the years since World War II is essential to understanding their work. Moreover, an account of JCS activities in times of peace as well as crisis and war contributes an important series of chapters in the military history of the United States. For these reasons the Joint Chiefs of Staff directed that an official history be written. Its value for instructional purposes at the joint and Service schools, for the orientation of officers newly assigned to the Joint Staff, and as a source of background information for staff studies will be readily recognized. The series, The Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Policy, treats the activities of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since the close of World War II. Volumes I through IV of the series covering the years 1945-1952 and the Korean War were declassified earlier. At that time no funds were available for publication, and the volumes were distributed in unclassified form within the Department of Defense with copies deposited with the National Archives and Records Administration. Subsequently, a private concern reproduced and published the volumes. In 1986 the JCS Historical Division published Volume V, covering the years 1953–1954, through the Government Printing Office. This volume, the sixth in the series, covers the years 1955 and 1956. It follows closely the pattern of Volume V in format and content. It traces the role of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the formulation of basic national security policy, in strategy development and force planning, in arms control negotiations, and in dealing with the issues of continental defense and military assistance. A series of regional chapters describes JCS participation in planning and operations involving NATO, the Middle East and the Suez crisis, Southeast Asia, the Far East, and Korea. Volume VI was completed and issued in classified version in 1971. It appears here basically as completed in 1971 with minor editorial revisions and a few deletions required by security considerations. Material from recently published volumes in the State Department's series, Foreign Relations of the United States, also has been added. Kenneth W. Condit, the author of the volume, earned bachelor's and master's degrees in history from Princeton University. He joined the JCS Historical Division in 1961 and served as the Chief of the Histories Branch from 1977 until his retirement in 1983. He is also the author of The Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Policy, vol. II, 1947–1949. The volume was reviewed for declassification by appropriate US Government departments and agencies and cleared for release. Although the text has been declassified, some cited sources remain classified. The volume is an official publication of the Joint Staff but, inasmuch as the text has not been considered by the Joint Chiefs of Staff or the Chairman, it must be construed as descriptive only and does not constitute the official position of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or the Chairman on any subject. Washington, DC November 1991 Willard J. Webb Chief, Historical Office Preface When this Volume first saw the light of day some 20 years ago, the United States and the Soviet Union were frozen in one of the most frigid antagonisms of the cold war. Each country was making every effort to develop and deploy the new weapons of mass destruction, to strengthen its own bloc of allies, and to expand its influence and control around the world. To deal with this potent potential enemy, the Eisenhower administration had redirected its strategy and force planning to emphasize strategic retaliatory striking power. Nuclear weapons delivered by ballistic missiles were the essential components of the New Look, as the policy came to be called. Robert J. Watson has described the JCS role in the creation of the New Look in Volume V of this series. This Volume VI is primarily concerned with the way the Joint Chiefs of Staff sought to "fine tune" the New Look through strategic plans, the force levels to support them, and allocation of responsibility among the military services for developing and operating the new weapons systems. This turned out to be a contentious process owing to interservice disagreement. Other important matters involving the Joint Chiefs of Staff included the strengthening of NATO, extension of collective security to the Middle and Far East through CENTO and SEATO, commenting on arms control proposals, and helping prepare the military assistance program. Organizational matters, which are the subject of other publications by the Historical Office, are omitted. On two occasions, the Joint Chiefs of Staff were called upon to participate in the Eisenhower administration's responses to actions by the communist bloc. One arose from the Soviet suppression of an uprising in Hungary, the other from attacks by the Chinese communists on islands constituting the outer defenses of Formosa. The Joint Chiefs of Staff found themselves in an international crisis of a very different sort in the Middle East. Here, the Eisenhower administration felt compelled to overturn the seizure of the Suez Canal and the Sinai peninsula by Britain and France, its major European allies, and Israel, its strongest supporter in the region. Readers familiar with the present-day organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should be aware that JCS procedures in 1955 and 1956 were different from those now in effect. The Joint Staff, which served the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was appreciably smaller than at present and consisted primarily of Joint Strategic Plans, Intelligence, and Logistics Plans Groups. At a higher organizational level were three joint committees, composed of Service representatives, with similar titles over |