https://declassified.library.utoronto.ca/files/original/fb60bf3c6f4ed8a3ecb911cad18ec80e.pdf 9bd3424fbf38f3e04e8749638cfe13ef PDF Text Text Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur I'acces a I'information DL(l)/McCardle/McL DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MEMORANDUM T O : .. ?J?3. JIPl4.e.?. .^?.^. e .^.^f^. Security . . . ? £ 9 £ £ T Date FROM: P.e£eflP.<?..W.9ARM..U.1. .D?,YA?ipn REFERENCE: £;.. File No. SoffS .^y..l?A.l?.^. <fc <rg Item II of the 622nd Meeting of the Chiefs of Staff Committee SUBJECT-. .r..United.. .S.tat.ea.R^flttiw»wtj5. Xwc. .Re£<*ftJ-AiB&.R*fiM At a meeting of the Chiefs of Staff Committee last week the Vice Chief of the Air Staff briefed the Committee on changed USAF requirements with respect to tanker facilities at four bases in Canada. A outline of these changed requirements is contained in the attached paper prepared by National Defence. 2. You will remember that an exchange of notes to cover the establishment of SAC refuelling facilities in Canada has been under negotiation for almost two years. Agreement was reached just prior to the spring meeting of the PJBD in late April. The I . negotiations had been based on the understanding that the [/W refuelling facilities would be used only occasionally in peacetime and that there would be no requirement for the permanent stationing at these bases of aircraft or personnel. At the PJBD meeting we were informed of the new requirements arising out of SAC's Alert Plan. It was agreed at the PJBD meeting that the USAF would send a team fro Ottawa to brief the RCAF on the details of the new requirements. 3. The new USAF requirement involves the permanent basing of six tanker aircraft at each of the four Canadian locations, these aircraft to be rotated weekly. Approximately 260 USAF personnel would be required at each base under the proposed arrangement. (In wartime the number of aircraft would be increased to twenty and the personnel to approximately 542; this deployment was contemplated under the earlier scheme as well.) Ext. 326 (2/53) 001022 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur I'acces a I'information 2... 4. The RCAF will probably be presenting to the Committee at this meeting further information concerning the project, which was requested at last week's Committee meeting. The RCAF may vee well submit to the Committee a draft Memorandum to Cabinet Defence Committee seeking approval in principle of the USAF proposals. This Department has not as yet seen a copy of the RCAF paper. ^/\te'<<) &/>••**• m^,z.^) 5. If the Committee considers a draft paper to Cabinet Defence Committee, you may wish to suggest that the paper should take into account political as well as military factors. You will recall the discussion, in the Chiefs of Staff Committee and later in the Cabinet Defence Committee on April 2S, of the United States request for permission to store bombs at Goose Bay for SAC's use. I am attaching for convenience of reference a memorandum for the Minister on this subject dated April 25. It seems to us that many of the same political factors must be considered in the context of SAC refuelling facilities and should therefore be brought to the attention of the Cabinet Defence Committee when the project goes forward. These factors are outlined below: (a) Canada will in fact become more deeply involved in the offensive operations of SAC. The public is unlikely to distinguish between SAC tanker bases and SAC bases, and therefore, the Government will have to handle a public assumption that fully fledged SAC ba«es are being established in Canada; (b) the deeper involvement of Canada in SAC operations raises the question of the degree of control which the Canadian Government should seek to exercise over SAC operations dependent upon Canadian facilities; this raises the problem of substance and a problem of public presentation not dissimilar from those which would be involved in the earlier United States request for permission to store nucleartoombeninCanada; 001023 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur I'acces a I'information 3* (c) the increase in the numbers of United States personnel stationed in Canada by approximately 1000 may cause difficulties in public presentation of the project; (d) it seems logical to suppose that the USAF might wish to defend these permanent tanker facilities, perhaps with NIKS batteries; this could create a political problem which would be most acute at a place like Namao, a few miles out of Edmonton, in that it could lead to a demand for point defence of Canadian cities. 6. It is not this Department's responsibility to challenge the military requirement for the tanker facilities. We can however, I think, argue legitimately that the non-military factors outlined above should be brought to the Cabinet's attention when its decision is being sought on the project. It was, we believe, presentation of similar arguments which led Cabinet Defence Committee to withhold decision for the time being on the matter of storage of weapons at Goose Bay. It may be your difficult task to convince the Chiefs of Staff Committee that, in suggesting the mention of these factors in a paper to the Cabinet, you are not attempting to delay the project but are simply attempting to ensure that Cabinet is fully informed before it takes its decision. 7. It is clear thatteiaseCanadian decisions cannot much longer be put off on the degree and nature of Canada's support of SAC offensive capabilities. In the logic of such cooperation, once a decision is taken to support the strategic striking force by providing tanker facilities, it may be difficult to argue that we should not agree to fully-fledged SAC bases on Canadian territory and perhaps later to ICBM bases. The ICBM will be the strategic strike force of the future. It would seem appropriate that Ministers should be fully aware of the path along which they are moving before they take the first step. Defence Liaison (1) Division 001024 � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CDAC02205 Title A name given to the resource Department of External Affairs Memorandum from Defence Liaison Division Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 5/12/1958 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived RG25-A-3-b, Volume number: 5910, File number: 50195-40, pt 3-2 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource LAC Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Canadian Crown Subject The topic of the resource SAC Refuelling Facilities Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Canada Declassified Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Language A language of the resource en