Abstract
This article examines the development of US international civil aviation policy between 1944 and 1964, as the USA instituted policies to expand and protect the global aviation opportunities of its airlines. This entailed hard bargaining with the British and others to establish and maintain the Bermuda formula as well as efforts to contain and isolate Soviet and Soviet Bloc aviation behind the Iron Curtain. By the mid-1950s, the success of American aviation policy was clear. But thereafter, as the capabilities of non-American airlines increased and the needs of American carriers changed, the effectiveness of containing Soviet Bloc aviation and maintaining the Bermuda formula waned. Responding to the changing realities of international aviation, the Kennedy administration undertook a reassessment of American aviation policy that recognised the inability of isolating Soviet and Soviet bloc aviation and the need to modify the Bermuda principles to better protect the competiveness of American flag carriers.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Notes
Henry Luce ‘The American Century’, Life (January, 1941); William Clayton to Josiah Bailey, 23 February 1945, Department of State Records, File 800.796, Record Group 59, National Archives II, College Park, MD. (Hereafter cited document title, date, file number, DSR.); Joseph J. Corn, Winged Gospel: America’s Romance with Aviation, 1900–1950 (New York, 1987), 125–30.
Carl Solberg, Conquest of the Skies: A History of Commercial Aviation in America (Boston, 1979), 285
C. B. Luce ‘America in the Post-War Air World’, Vital Speeches 9 (March 15, 1943): 331–6; ‘The New Imperialism: Mrs. Luce’s Speech’, New Republic 108 (February 22, 1943): 253.
The first four were generally accepted and a necessity for international flying. The first (freedom of transit) allowed the right to fly through the air space of another country; the second (freedom for technical stops) allowed for landing in a foreign country for servicing aircraft, but not for commercial reasons. The Third and Fourth freedoms were the keys for commercial operations, allowing an airline to discharge passengers to a specific foreign destination (Third Freedom), and pick up passengers at a foreign destination and fly them to the airline’s country of origin (Fourth Freedom). The Fifth Freedom was more controversial, but seen as necessary for the profitable operations of American international service. It allowed an airline to take on passengers at a destination city and take them to a third destination city on the airline’s route. Solberg, Conquest of the Skies, 285–6; H. A. Wassenbergh, Post-War International Civil Aviation Policy and the Law of the Air (Hague, 1962), 11–23.
Solberg Conquest of the Skies, 286–9. For an analysis of American and British aviation competitive policies, the Chicago Conference, and a discussion of the ‘Fifth Freedom’, see: Alan B. Dobson, Peaceful Air Warfare: The United States, Britain and the Politics of International Aviation (Oxford, 1991)
Marc L. J. Dierikx ‘Shaping World Aviation: Anglo-American Civil Aviation Relations, 1944–1946’, The Journal of Air Law and Commerce 57 (Summer, 1992): 795–840.
Dean Acheson to Congressman Wat Arnold, 10 May 1946, 841.796, DSR.
In August 1945 in response to a request from CAB Chairman Pouge that more economic bargaining levers be used to support aviation interests, the State Department responded that while ‘a number of bargaining elements… have and will be used’, but the CAB needed to realise that ‘requests… often exceeds the economic assistance … [the United States is] prepared to make’ and that other issues were more important. Pouge to State, 16 July 1945; State to Pouge, 31 July 1945, 800.76, DSR; Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945, Vol. II, (Washington, DC, 1967), 1463. (Hereafter cited as FR, date, volume, page.)
British concerns about and opposition to the treaty with Ireland were even discussed between President Franklin D. Roosevelt by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who after the agreement was signed wanted Roosevelt to annul the agreement. Warren F. Kimball, Churchill and Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence, 3 Volumes (Princeton, NJ, 1984): III, 521, 543–4, 566–7; Secretary of State Stettinius, Memorandum for the President, 8 February 1945, Official File 218, Franklin D. Roosevelt Papers, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1944, Vol. II (Washington, DC, 1967), 609; FR, 1945, II, 1462. State Department paper noted that until 1947 the United States ‘actively pressed both the Soviet Union and the satellites for … air transport agreements’ and that American ‘markets for aircraft, components, aids to navigation, etc. were open to the U.S.S.R.’ ‘Some Considerations Involved in U.S. Aviation Policy Toward the Soviet Union and Satellites’, 28 May 1948, Policy Planning Staff, 1947–1953, Subject Files - Aviation, Box 7, Record Group 59, DSR.
Satterthwaite to State Department, 29 August 1945, DSF 860f.796; James L. Gormly ‘The Counter Iron Curtain: Crafting an American-Soviet Bloc Civil Aviation Policy, 1942–1960’, Diplomatic History 17 (April, 2013): 248–79.
Ibid. The American representative at the Hague noted that prior to the air agreement with the Netherlands, the Dutch had received a C-54. Hague to State Department, 3 October 1945, 800.796, DSR.
Foreign Office Minute, 25 April 1945, Foreign Office File W 5713/24/802; Lord Halifax to Foreign Office, 5 September 1945, W 12291/24/802; Foreign Office Memorandum, 27 September 1945, W 12856/24/802; Minutes of Cabinet Meeting, C.A.C. (45)1, 14 September 1945, W 12574/24/802. While some responses were positive, France and Greece informed the Foreign Office they were ‘very dependent on the Americans’ and worried about ‘displeasing’ them. Paris to Foreign Office, 1 June 1945; Athens to Foreign Office, 31 March 1945, W4460/24/802 Foreign Office Correspondence File 371, Public Record Office, Kew, Great Britain. (Hereafter cited FO 371, PRO).
Satterthwaite to Hickerson, 7 February 1945, DSR 800.796. In March 1945, the American Ambassador to Britain reported that he expected the British to use their national airline, BOAC ‘to restrict the spread of the Fifth Freedom… by encouraging the formation of either regional companies or regional cabotage areas’. Such an arrangement, he concluded, would not exclude American airlines but they would place them ‘at a serious disadvantage’. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945, Vol. VIII (Washington, DC, 1969), 65.
FR, 1945, II, 1462; Pogue to State, 16 July 1945, 800.796; Hague to State, 3 October 1945, DSR 800.796; Pogue to State, 3 October 1945, DSR 800.79; Marc L. J. Dierikx ‘Shaping World Aviation: Anglo-American Civil Aviation Relations, 1944–1946’, The Journal of Air Law and Commerce 57 (1992): 830–5.
British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin told the American Ambassador that he considered the linking of aviation issues to financial negotiations to be ‘monstrous’ and ‘blackmail’ and the ‘the British people would go down rather than be clubbed’. David MacKenzie ‘The Bermuda Conference and Anglo-American Aviation Relations at the End of the Second World War’, The Journal of Transportation History 12 (March, 1991), 61–73; Foreign Office to Lord Halifax, 3 January 1945, W543/8/802, FO 371, 1946; FR, 1946, I, 1451
Washington thought it also would be ‘desirable’ for the British ‘to withdraw their opposition to our negotiations of full fifth freedom in countries like Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Iran, and Belgium’. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, Vol. I (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1972), 1453. For an analysis of the conference see: MacKenzie ‘Bermuda Conference’, 61–73; Dobson, Peaceful Air Warfare, 192–204.
Colonel George Baker who headed the American delegation stated: ‘We knew what we wanted when we came’ and ‘we have got it and more’. FR, 1946, Vol. I, 1463; MacKenzie ‘Bermuda Conference’, 67-9.
Ibid.; FR, 1946, Vol. I., 1463, 1465, 1468–69; Secretary of State Byrnes to Ambassador Winant, 8 January 1946, 841.796, DSR; Dobson, Peaceful Air Warfare, 196–8.
Extract from Cabinet Minutes (February 5–11), Cabinet Papers (46), Air 19/438, PRO; MacKenzie ‘The Bermuda Conference’, 68–70; Time, 47 (February 11, 1946): 79.
Norton was particularly critical of the way in which the USA selected and announced its international routes and then conducted its aviation diplomacy. Earl Burton to David Hulbund, 9 August 1946, W35/35/802, FO 371, 54628, PRO.
American officials in the Middle East were among the loudest in complaining about British obstructionism regarding their efforts to negotiate air transport treaties. See: Gallman (London) to State Department, 4 September 1946, 800.786. Cairo (Tuck) to State, 9 January 1946, 800.796; Cairo (Tuck) to State, 1 February 1946; 883.796; London (Gallman) to State, 25 April 1946, 841.796; Cairo (Tuck) to State, 7 September 1946, 800.796, DSR.
Satterthwaite also noted: ‘the record is perfectly clear that the British will oppose by every means at their command the control or exclusive domination by an American company of an airline of any country in Europe, Middle or Near East’. Satterthwaite to State Department, 4 September 1946; 811.796, DSR
MacKenzie ‘The Bermuda Conference’, 72; Cairo (Tuck) to State, 9 January 1946, 800.796; Cairo (Tuck) to State, 1 February 1946, 883.796; London (Gallman) to State, 25 April 1946, 841.796; Cairo (Tuck) to State, 7 September 1946, 800.796; Record of Conversation, London, 12–14 September 1946, 711.4127, DSR.
To facilitate the Egyptian agreement, the USA put forth a better offer regarding Payne Airfield and nearly six million dollars of equipment. New York Times, March 26 and 28, 1946. British official feared that Egypt’s decision would produce ‘a landslide in the same direction throughout the Middle East’. Ambassador Campbell to Foreign Office, Foreign Office to Ambassador Campbell, 9 May 1946 W4866/541/802; Ambassador Lord Halifax to Foreign Office, 4 May 1946, W5191/451/802, FO 371, PRO.
MacKenzie ‘The Bermuda Conference’ ‘Civil Aviation Talks with United States Officials in London, 14 September 1946, W 4226/8484/802; Record of Discussions Between Representatives of United States and United Kingdom, 12–14 September 1946, FO 371, 55627; Foreign Office to Representatives in Beirut, Angora, Cairo, Bagdad, Amman, Jedda, Tehran, Addis Ababa, 20 September 1946, W9210/422/802, FO 54628, PRO.
American officials were disappointed that both France and the Netherlands were now supporting and accepting some restrictive air treaties. Report on Postwar International Aviation Policies, 9 November 1948, Bureau of International Aviation, Negotiation Bureau, Records of Civil Aeronautical Board, Record Group 197, Box 1, National Archives, Suit-land, Maryland.
Gormly ‘The Counter Iron Curtain’, 248–79; Central Intelligence Group ‘Future Soviet Participation in Long-Range International Air Transport’, ORE-14, March 1947, National Archives, Washington, DC. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, Vol. 4 (Washington, DC, 1974), 440–1.
Air Coordinating Committee Adopts Policy Toward USSR’, Current Economic Developments, 7 March 1947, State Department Records, Group 59, Lot70D467, Box 2 (Hereafter cited Current Economic Developments, date); Department of State Memorandum, Air Transport Operations Through Satellite States’, 9 June 1947, 711.0427, DSR.
Telegrams, Steinhardt to State, 12 August 1946, 10 January 1947, 860F796; US Embassy Beirut to State, 17 August 1948, 860.7660. Bohlen told George F. Kennan that American aviation policy was based largely on ‘security considerations’. Memorandum, 11 November 1948, 711.4027; FR, 1948, Vol. IV, 457–61, DSR; Gormly ‘The Counter Iron Curtain’, 261–8.
Ibid. In addition, London was hopeful that an aviation agreement was possible with Yugoslavia. Memorandum ‘US-UK Air Traffic to Satellites’, 28 January 1949, W 540/45/802G, FO 371 54627, PRO.
Gormly ‘The Counter Iron Curtain’, 269–72. The Scandinavians, the French, Dutch, and Belgians seemed unwilling ‘to co-operate’ or even limit their efforts to obtain aviation rights with the Soviet bloc, and the Italians appeared unwilling to cut their air agreement with the Czechs. Current Economic Developments, 15 April 1949, 25 July 1949, Record Group 59, Lot 70D 476, DSR; FR, 1948, Vol. IV, pp. 471, 486; Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, Vol. V (Washington, DC, 1976), 196–7, 198–203.
Among those changed conditions was the outbreak of the Korean War, increased Soviet control over Eastern Europe, and Czechoslovakia’s confrontational and undiplomatic behavior that included arresting dissidents and foreigners. Gormly ‘The Counter Iron Curtain’, 271–4. By 1951, for example, CSA was flying only to Helsinki, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, Current Economic Developments, 5 June 1951.
Memorandum for Vice President, 26 June 1956, Security Council Staff Papers, 1953–1961, Box 2, Civil Aviation Folder National Security Council Files, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Abilene, Kansas (Hereafter cited Eisenhower Library); Gormly ‘The Counter Iron Curtain’, 274–7.
In discussions with the United States over reshaping policy, London agreed that ‘there was no further point in preserving the ‘Containment Policy’ toward the Satellites’ and that the United States had failed to recognise that a ‘common policy’ was unattainable as well. Foreign Office Memorandum, 19 October 1956, GA 26/80, Foreign Office Note, 17 July 1957, GA 26/38. FO 371; ‘U.S. Civil Aviation Policy Toward the Sino-Soviet Bloc’, NSC Memorandum 5726/1, 9 December 1957, Box 2, Special Staff File, National Security Papers, 1953–1962, Eisenhower Library; Current Economic Developments, 8 January 1957, 10–12; Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Vol. IX (Washington, DC, 1987), 488–503; Gormly ‘Counter Iron Curtain’, 277–8.
FR, 1955–1957, 490–9.
The Kennedy had limited success in getting most Western European and some African nations to close their aviation doors to Soviet and Cuban aviation during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. Once the crisis had passed, however, that cold war unity quickly vanished. See: Staff Study, United States International Aviation (Draft), 14 December 1962, Box 4, Folder: International Staff Study, Robert Murphy Papers, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, MA.
In 1953, President Eisenhower directed the Air Coordinating Committee to conduct an evaluation of commercial aviation. Part of the request arose from growing problems within the aviation industry, but it was also part of a larger effort by the new administration to reevaluate programmes and agencies implemented by previous Democratic administrations in an effort to reduce government spending and implement a less intrusive federal government. Stuart I. Rochester, Takeoff at Mid-Century: Federal Civil Aviation Policy in the Eisenhower Years, 1953–1961 (Washington, DC, 1976).
In 1955, for example, Pan American Airlines made, before subsidies, made nearly as much as the combined profits of all major foreign airlines. ‘Papers for the Conference on International Air Transport Policy’, 1–3 May 1962, Folder: Air Transportation Policy, Carl Kaysen Box 364, National Security Files, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, MA.
Ibid.
Henry Deimel to Edward Bolster, 23 December 1953, Miriam Camp Files, Folder: France, 1963, Box 1, Records of the Office of European Regional Affairs, 1946–1953 - Subject Files, Record Group 59, DSR.
‘Relationship Between US Aviation and Foreign Lines’, 8 January 1957, Current Economic Developments;. ‘Policies and Problems in the International Aviation Field, 18 September 1955, Current Economic Development; Dobson, Peaceful Air Warfare, 219.
‘Report on International Air Transport Policy of the United States’, January, 1963, International Air Transport Policy, Federal Aviation Agency Files, Department and Agencies Series, President’s Office Files, John F Kennedy Library, Boston, MA (Hereafter cited ‘Report on International Air Transport Policy’); Giles Scott-Smith and David J. Snyder “A Test of Sentiments’: Civil Aviation, Alliance Politics, and the KLM Challenge in Dutch-American Relations’, Diplomatic History 37 (November 2013): 917–48; Dierikx, Clipping the Clouds, 88–90.
The British view arose in part from the inability since 1955 for the USA and the UK to successfully agree on major route matters.
‘Report on International Air Transport Policy’.
Sixth Freedom traffic referred to passengers and cargo from a third or another country, flying to the carrier’s point of origin before boarding flights to another destination country.
‘Report on International Air Transport Policy’.
Ibid.
The State Department opposed the CAB ability to impose such limitation. It pointed out that in supporting the Bermuda agreement, the USA had strongly rejected other countries placing arbitrary and unilateral restrictions on air operations. The CAB responded that limitations would be applied only in cases where foreign carriers abused Fifth and Sixth Freedom traffic to the USA, and that such actions did not violate the Bermuda agreement. In adjudicating the two positions, the Justice Department found that neither had definitive argument, but the CAB’s position was the most persuasive. In the White House statement, the CAB position was adopted and that legislative authority should be given to support such CAB actions. Ibid.
‘Background Papers’, Conference on International Air Transport Policy. Box 364, Carl Kaysen Files, National Security Files, Kennedy Library, Boston, MA.
Ibid.
‘Report on International Air Transport Policy’.
Ibid.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Notes on contributor
James L. Gormly is Professor of History at Washington and Jefferson College. He holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Connecticut. His research interests focus on American foreign policy in the twentieth century. His publications include the From Potsdam to Cold War (1990), Making America: A History of the United States (7th ed., 2013), and ‘The Counter Iron Curtain: Crafting an American-Soviet Bloc Civil Aviation Policy, 1942-1960’, Diplomatic History 17 (April, 2013): 248-79. His current research is focusing on an examination of the development of American international aviation.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gormly, J.L. Opening and closing doors: US postwar aviation policy: 1943–1963. J Transatl Stud 13, 251–262 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1080/14794012.2015.1058567
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14794012.2015.1058567