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TOP SECRET
THE JOINT CHEFS OF STAFF
Washington 25, D. C,
13 March 1958
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE:
Subject: Nuclear Testing (U)
1. Reference is made to a memorzndum by the Deputy Secretary
of Defense, dated 27 February 1958, subject as above.
2. Under the conditions specified in the referenced memorandum
the United States is ahead of the USSR numerically, both in numbers of
weapons and amounts of weapons materials. If the moratorium applies
only against testing, the United States can hold this position until about
1964. In any analysis of the nuclear capabilities of the two countries,
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possibility that the USSR may have made alternative effective designs
which are unknown to us.
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3, The Joint Chiefs of Staff have reviewed referenced memorandum in light of the possible position of the USSR with respect to that
of the United States, and consider that a complete cessation of nuclear
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testing after Operation HARDTACK would result, at the very least, in
countries.
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a technological parity in nuclear weapons development between the two
This apparent parity is reflected in the Appendix hereto.
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the USSR to assume the military initiative, could resuit in relative
supremacy of the USSR over the United States.
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by about 1964 by the USSR with its rapidly increasing capacity for producing nuclear materials, These factors, coupled with the ability of
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Furthermore, the quantitative advantage which the United States pres-
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the United States can only evaluate Soviet weapons against our own,
since we have no specific intelligence on theirs. With this handicap,
we must interject a note of caution into any evaluation, because of the
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