Nassau Agreement

The agreement by Nassau enabled Britain to purchase U.S. Polaris missiles to build a submarine -based nuclear deterrent force as a replacement for the broken joint Skybolt program for airborne ballistic missile. It was completed on December 21, 1962 between U.S. President John F. Kennedy and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in Nassau ( Bahamas).

Meaning of the agreement

The agreement should the NATO alliance defense in particular ensure in Europe, after the United States had promised the withdrawal of directed against the Soviet Union deployment of U.S. medium-range missiles of the type Jupiter in Turkey as a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. In addition, the basis for the development of a multilateral nuclear fleet (MLF ) should be created. In addition, it led to a resurgence of the " special relationship" between Britain and the U.S., which had experienced a serious deterioration especially after the American intervention against the Anglo- French action during the Suez crisis in 1956. A similar arrangement with France was rejected by President Charles de Gaulle, who instead advanced the development of an independent treaty obligations by " force de frappe ".

Content of the agreement

Follow the conference

Following the conference from 18 to 21 December 1962 in Nassau, U.S. President John F. Kennedy sent a personal letter to the German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and French President Charles de Gaulle, where he them the results of his talks with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan expounded and the French government submitted the same offer, which was adopted by the British side.

This emphasis on the US-British special relationship led to the annoyance of France. President de Gaulle had a press conference on January 14, 1963 back in Nassau as a kind of supplement also offered him Polaris missiles and reaffirmed the French alone. This led to the failure of a Multilateral Force (MLF ) and on 1 July 1966 France's withdrawal from the defense of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and de Gaulle had announced at the press conference to reject the application for membership of Britain to the European Economic Community ( EEC). The accession negotiations between the EEC and the United Kingdom were eventually canceled on 29 January 1963.

Engineers and scientists developed at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston in West Berkshire for the British Polaris missiles to 1968 the warhead A3T. With the Polaris Sales Agreement dated 6 April 1963, the purchase of the missiles was signed by Type Polaris A- 3P between the U.S. and the UK. The first British nuclear submarine, HMS Dreadnought, the (S101 ), was put into service on 17 April 1963. The HMS Resolution (S22 ) in 1968 was the first British submarine ballistic missile ( SSBN ), which was equipped with Polaris missiles.