Memorandum, State Department Summary of Telegrams

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE Flori DECLASSIFIED WASHINGTON State Dept. Guidelines, March 6, 1982 E.O. 12065, Sec. 3-402 By EEK NLT, Date 9-10- September 3, 1952 SECRET SECURITY INF ORMATION SUMMARY OF TELEGRAMS BALTIC While the Department is well aware of the delicacy of MANEUVERS the Bornholm phase of the Operation Main Brace, it does not concur in Mr. Churchill's proposal that with absolutely no further notice to anyone the commander of the operation, acting ostensibly on his own authority, simply fail to carry out the Bornholm exercise and in practice regard the 14 degree line as the eastern limit of Main Brace. This view has been reinforced through a renewed study of the problem within the Government in which comments of key US representa- tives in the field were also solicited. Accordingly, our Ambassador at London has b een instructed to inform the British Foreign Office of our views that, under the present circumstances, the Churchill proposal is not practicable or advisable for the following reasons: (1) The Bornholm phase of the exercise has been given wide publicity during the past week in Denmark as a result of statements of the Danish Foreign Minister and Defense Minister; (2) in view of statements of Danish authorities regarding Bornholm, cancellation of that exercise would prove extremely embarrassing to the Danish Government and would strengthen local Communists who have charged that the maneuvers were provocative; (3) cancellation of the exercise at this late date would not only be unfair to the Danes but would be considered highly suspect by them and might lead to serious loss of confidence in Anglo- American leadership, particularly in view of the Montgomery promise of last year not to let them down; (4) cancellation of the Bornholm phase whether now or during maneuvers would quickly become known and Soviets would view cancellation as sign of weakness. This might well lead to the Soviet belief that they could in the future afford to be bolder in the Baltic and elsewhere and could be utilized by Soviet propagandists as an indication of a rift between Denmark and other NATO countries; (5) action was taken by the NATO Standing Group on August 18 to require that no foreign warships visit Bornholm and a number of other precautions have been placed in effect including non-violation of the Russian claim to a 12 mile territorial limit and very definite restrictions on air craft flights and (6) the Baltic maneuvers involve non-Danish forces no larger than those which have LECRETSECURTY INFORMA TION'