---
born: 1906-11-04
category: UFO & Anomalous Phenomena
died: 1996-03-15
location: Brooklyn, New York
summary: The report also suggested reconsidering a controversial American plan to
  create a multilateral force (MLF) that would give NATO members, including West Germans,
  a joint finger on the nuclear trigger.
tags:
- Person
- UFO
---

Roswell L. Gilpatric was an American government official who served as Deputy Secretary of Defense under President [John F. Kennedy](/people/john-f-kennedy/). He headed a special panel on nonproliferation convened by President [Lyndon B. Johnson](/people/lyndon-b-johnson/) after [China](/places/china/)'s first nuclear test in 1964. The panel's report, returned on January 21, 1965, amounted to an indictment of past and present policy, warning that the world was "fast approaching a point of no return" in controlling the spread of nuclear weapons. It urged the President to substantially increase efforts and advocated for nuclear-free zones in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, including [Israel](/places/israel/) and [Egypt](/places/egypt/).[^1]

The report also suggested reconsidering a controversial American plan to create a multilateral force (MLF) that would give [NATO](/organizations/nato/) members, including West Germans, a joint finger on the nuclear trigger. The report was deemed "as explosive as a nuclear weapon" by [Dean Rusk](/people/dean-rusk/), then Secretary of State, and was kept highly classified. Despite its significance, the report went nowhere, and nonproliferation continued to be treated as a topic fit only for arms controllers.[^1]

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 11.