TOP SECRET
General Cutler explained the reasons that had prompted the Defense
and Treasury members of the Plenning Board to add the bracketed
language.
When General Cutler had concluded his summary of the Planning Board discussion, the President inquired whether we were talking
here of very large military units only, or were we talking about
small MAAG units? The latter, he supposed, had diplomatic immunity.
Mr. Gray reminded the President that only the higher officers in our
MAAG units abroad enjoyed the privileges of diplomatic immunity.
After further lively discussion, the President inquired
whether it would not be wise to suggest a further and more detailed
examination of this issue by the Departments of State and Defense.
General Cutler replied that the matter had been so much studied already that another study was likely to produce more confusion than
clarity.
Secretary Herter then indicated that the State Department
would have no objection to the inclusion of the language proposed
by Defense and Treasury. Secretary McElroy concurred, but suggested
deletion of the phrase "where feasible" in the second line of the
Planning Board recommendation, inasmuch as this phrase wes not appropriate for the wording of an objective, as opposed to a course of
action.
As he was leaving, the President adverted once again to
the discussion of the U. 5S. base structure overseas. He spoke with
earnestness to the effect that the whole matter should be the subject of soul-searching in order to determine the net value and ad~
vantage of each of these bases to the United States. He was not,
he insisted, asking for any new study, but instead asking each responsible official to keep this matter constantly in mind. There
was grave question, he said, in his own mind as to the net value
of many of our overseas bases, although there were, of course, exceptions such as Okinawa and the Bonins.
General Cutler then came to the final issue selected by
the Planning Board for discussion, relating to the sharing of defense responsibilities with Canada. He read the majority proposal
and the ODM proposal, as variant Planning Board recommendations for
Council agreement, as follows:
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"ODM Proposal,
"The Council on Foreign Economic "The Planning Board should
Policy should be requested to
prepare, for consideration
study all possible means of inproving U. 5.-Canada economic
relations, and to transmit to
the National Security Council
any recommendations requiring
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by the National Security
Council, a draft policy
paper on all aspects of our
relations with Canada."
Presidential consideration."
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