793.5 MAP/6–1450
Memorandum by the Acting Deputy Director of the Office of Chinese Affairs (Freeman) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Rusk)
Subject: Request by Chinese Government to purchase napalm bombs with money refunded under $125 million grants.
Attached is a memorandum of conversation1 between Mr. Johnson of CA and Dr. Wang of the Chinese Embassy, in which Dr. Wang indicates that the Chinese Government desires to purchase napalm bombs and other incendiaries with the refunds now becoming available on OFLC–Chinese Government contracts financed under the $125 million grants.
CA has informed Dr. Wang in response to his query that requests for the expenditure of these refunds should be submitted to the Department in the form originally prescribed under the $125 million grants.
There remains, however, the basic question regarding the desirability of allowing the Chinese to obtain incendiary bombs from the United States Government. When the request for this matériel was originally submitted, in a memorandum dated November 7 [3], 1949,2 the Department referred it to the Department of Defense indicating that we had no objection to the issuance of the matériel providing the Chinese paid for it with their own funds and shipped it commercially. No procurement action was taken in the Department of Defense because the Department of State subsequently expressed the view that the President’s January 5 statement on Taiwan precluded Chinese purchases for cash from Defense stocks. In February the Chinese resubmitted the request in the form of a requisition to Air Force under the $125 million grants, and Air Force indicated that the matériel could be made available. Again, however, no procurement action was taken, because it was ascertained that all funds allocated to Air Force under the $125 million grants had been exhausted. The Chinese are now requesting that the refunded China Aid Act money plus China Aid Act funds remaining in their special account at Riggs Bank be transferred to the Air Force for this purpose. Air Force has indicated informally to CA that the matériel is presently in stock and that it has no objection to complying with the Chinese Government’s request.
CA would appreciate your views as to whether the Department should adhere to the substance of its original recommendation and [Page 364] pass along the Chinese request without objection. Questions have been raised from time to time as to the desirability, on psychological as well as strategic grounds, of supplying incendiary bombs to the Chinese Government. While these bombs are essentially an antipersonnel weapon not designed for large-scale destruction of urban areas, they might possibly provide the Chinese Communists with a dangerous weapon for use in attacks on Hong Kong and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. It has also been suggested that the Department take into consideration the adverse psychological and propaganda effect which might result from the use by the Chinese Government of antipersonnel “horror weapons” provided by the United States. On the other hand, the United States has in the past furnished bombs of other types to the Chinese Government; and it has been the Government’s policy not to interfere with the desires of the Chinese in disposing of the $125 million grants as long as the Department of Defense was willing and able to make requested matériel available.3
- Not printed.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1949, vol. ix, p. 577.↩
- On the source text, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Merchant) wrote a brief comment to Mr. Rusk which read as follows: “Despite the nature of the bomb & the risk it might later be used against Hong Kong or in SEA, I think we should place no obstacle in path of Chinese procurement as desired.” Mr. Rusk wrote that he had no objection.↩