Memorandum from Admiral William D. Leahy to President Harry S. Truman, Memorandum to be Forwarded by the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee to the Secretary of State

To the President for information E N C L O S U R E BICLASSIFIED W.D.h. E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E) STATE LTR 8-9-23 OSD letter, April 12, 1974 NARS Date 5-21-25 "MATIONAL By, NLT- HC ARGHIVES MEMORANDUM TO BE FORWARDED BY THE STATE-WAR-NAVY COORDINATING COMMITTEE TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 1. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, in response to the suggestion of the Department of State in its letter to the Secretaries of War and the Navy dated 7 July 1945 (J.C.S. 570/24), have com- pleted an over-all examination of U.S. requirements for military bases and base rights outside the continental limits of the United States. 2. Appended hereto is a list of those bases and base sites for which diplomatic negotiations in the near future will be required in order to obtain the desired rights, together with appropriate information regarding each of the bases. This division of areas into essential and required is a general indication of the suggested priority for negotiations to obtain the indicated rights. It is appreciated that in practice the sequence of negotiations may be affected by other considerations. Failure to obtain a base listed in a higher category may re- quire the reclassification of a base listed in a lower category. 3. In view of the political complications and difficulties involved in maintaining U.S. personnel and installations in foreign territory in peacetime and because of the elements of cost and manpower, it is believed that the State Department should give serious consideration to arrangements by which other nations undertake the load of maintaining required installations in certain areas in return for payment in one form or another by the United States. In any instances where the State Department considers that installations should be maintained by other nations the matter should be referred to the Joint Chiefs of Staff for