Executive Secretariat Files: NSC 92 Series
Memorandum by the Ambassador at Large (Jessup) to the Executive Secretary of the National Security Council (Lay)
Subject: NSC 92—The Position of the United States Regarding a Blockade of Trade With China
Reference is made to NSC 92 “The Position of the United States Regarding a Blockade of Trade with China” and to your memorandum of December 6, 1950 with which you forwarded the memorandum from Secretary Snyder of the same date on this subject. You will recall that NSC 92 was prepared at the request of the Department of Commerce and was designed solely to put in writing the interim decision which had already been made to put all exports to China under licensing scrutiny but not, at the moment, to put into effect a trade: embargo and a blocking of assets against Communist China. It might be more desirable to frame the policy statement in NSC 92 in positive rather than negative terms. I would recommend therefore that the members of the Senior Staff consider urgently recommending that the following be substituted for the policy statement in NSC 92 before it is given final consideration by the members of the Council:
“The United States should continue, for the moment, its present policies regarding the placement of all exports under license to China and the NSC should keep under review the questions of a trade embargo, a blocking of assets of Communist China and action to prevent American shipping from calling at China mainland ports.”