910            FOREIGN RELATIONS, 1950, VOLUME I
711.5/1-1850

The Under Secretary of State (Webb) to the Deputy Secretary of
                          Defense (Early)1

SECRET                                 WASHINGTON, March 23, 1950.
  DEAR MR. EARLY: Reference ismade to your letter to Mr. Acheson
dated January 18, 1950, and handed to Mr. Battle, Special Assistant
to the Secretary, on March 1, 1950, by Admiral Richard E. Byrd.2
You state that the Department of Defense has under consideration
the advisability of undertaking in the future some such Antarctic
operations as those which were undertaken in 1947 and request coml-
ment on this subject,
  The Department Of State favors United States exploration and also
scientific studies in the Antarctic and will cooperate if the Depart-
ment of Defense decides to carry out a project similar to that under-
taken in 1947. It is thought, however, that consideration of the project
is primarily a matter for the Department of Defense.
  The Antarctic territorial problem    is the subject of an informal
exchange of views between the interested countries. Specific arrange-
ments for a United States expedition would naturally bemade in the
light of the status of that exchange of views at the time. It is not now
anticipated that this would 'materially affect operational aspects: of
such a project. Your letter does not, of course, state the prospective
timing of the operation which the Department of Defense has under
study and, therefore, the views of the Department of State at present
must be tentative and subject to review     in the light of political
developments.
  Your letter raises-the -question of the possible advisability, from
the standpoint of foreign policy, of undertaking -operations in Green-
land rather than in Antarctica. Considerations of.-foreign policy make
it appear undesirable to undertake such operations in Greenland.
  The Department of-State will be:glad to be, kept informed of the

  This letter was drafted by Caspar D. Green of the Office of Northern Euro-
pean Affairs and was cleared with that office as well as with the Office
of North
and West Coast Affairs (Bureau of Inter-American Affairs), the Assistant
Legal
Adviser for Political Affairs, the Special::Adviser ;on -Geography, the Bureau
of
Inter-American Affairs, and the Bureau of European Affairs.
  In his letter of January 18, not printed, Deputy Secretary Early explained
that the Department of Defense was considering the advisability of undertaking
cold weather military training operations in the Antarctic such as were pre-
viously undertaken in 1947. The letter also asked whether it would be diplo-
matically desirable to undertake such operations in Greenland rather than
in
Antarctica (711.5/1-1850). Attached to the source text of the letter printed
here
is a brief memorandum of March 1 by Special Assistant Lucius D. Battle, not
printed, indicating that Rear Admiral Byrd had for some time been trying
to see
the Secretary of State, but it had not been possible to work out a time and
Sit did not seem to be an essential appointment."