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The 'Nassau Agreement' was a treaty negotiated between President John F. Kennedy for the United States and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan for the United Kingdom. It was discussed by the two leaders over three days in the Bahamas and signed 18 December 1962.
Under the agreement the USA was to provide the UK with five Polaris submarines and associated nuclear-armed Polaris missiles (under the terms of the Polaris Sales Agreement), in return for which the UK was to lease the Americans a nuclear submarine base in the Holy Loch, near Glasgow. The agreement was clear that the UK's Polaris missiles were part of a 'multi-lateral force' within NATO and could only be used independently when 'supreme national interests' intervened.
The agreement followed the collapse of the Skybolt programme, which was an air-launched missile developed jointly by the two nations. No longer needed by the US, Skybolt's termination left a hole in the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent.
Charles de Gaulle considered the signing of the agreement to be a clear signal that the UK was aligning itself more closely with the US, and this contributed to his decision to refuse the United Kingdom's entry to the European Economic Community in January 1963.
Peter Cook satirised the agreement in Beyond the Fringe, a stage show in the early 1960s, with a sketch featuring Macmillan reflecting on the negotiations: ''We talked of many things, including Great Britain's position in the world as some kind of honest broker. I agreed with him when he said no nation could be more honest, and he agreed with me when I chaffed him and said no nation could be broker.
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★ President Kennedy's Press Conference February 7 1963