121.893/9–2647
Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Butterworth) to the Under Secretary of State (Lovett)
As requested, I saw General Wedemeyer this morning and had an interesting and pleasant conversation with him but, as regards the question at issue, he indicated that he had had second thoughts since his conversation with you yesterday. They came to this:
- (1)
- That he was most reluctant to make any change in the report and only prepared to do so provided some statement was made in the report to the effect that changes had been made at the request of the Secretary of State or for reasons of overriding policy etc.
- (2)
- That, in any case, distribution should be the President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of National Defense, the Secretaries of the Army, Navy and the Air Force, the Secretary of the Treasury, and, at the President’s request, the Secretary of Commerce.33
- (3)
- That if the question was one of immediacy from a security point of view, he believed that the best solution would be to make distribution of the report later rather than sooner.
I told him that I was not authorized to make a definitive decision in this matter but that I would report to you, for conveyance to General Marshall, his views.
On returning to the Department, I then proposed by telephone the insertion of the following statement in the reports to be distributed provided the desired changes were effected, and General Wedemeyer accepted this possible solution, it being understood that you would submit it to General Marshall for his decision if it recommended itself to you:34
“There has been omitted from this written report one recommendation which I have conveyed directly to the President and the Secretary of State,”