On 7 February 1962, French Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville sends a telegram to Hervé Alphand, French Ambassador to Washington, containing the text of the reply sent the previous day by French President Charles de Gaulle to British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan on the question of nuclear weapons. Following the recent Soviet explosions, the French President understands that the Western powers cannot allow themselves to fall behind in the arms race. General de Gaulle therefore approves of the British Government’s agreement in principle to allow the Americans to use its installations on Christmas Island to carry out a series of nuclear tests and notes that France also intends to conduct its own nuclear tests. Charles de Gaulle emphasises that France is in favour of any measure that would lead to disarmament, but only on condition that this would involve the organised destruction of all existing bombs and nuclear carriers.