President John F. Kennedy once privately threatened that he would consider “hauling out” U.S. forces from  Western Europe if West Germany reneged on its 1954 pledge not to produce nuclear weapons, according to documents posted today on the web site of the George Washington University-based National Security Archive.

Political leaders from both sides of the Iron Curtain shared Kennedy’s worries about this lesser-known facet of the German Question, which became one of the drivers of U.S. policy on nuclear nonproliferation.

Today’s posting is one of a series of document collections the Archive will publish to mark the 50th anniversary of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Highlighting Germany’s part in the origins of the Treaty, the records published here for the first time were obtained through archival research and the Freedom of Information Act. They offer fresh context for the current public debate over Germany’s potential for becoming a nuclear weapons state.