795.00/12–2850
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Lucius D. Battle, Special Assistant to the Secretary of State
Mr. Acheson spoke to General Marshall this morning about a suggestion which the General had made at the meeting at Blair House on Tuesday night.1 The suggestion was that the President attend the meetings which the Department is having with the Military and with the JCS.
[Page 1615]Mr. Acheson said that he had some reservations about this suggestion and said that the NSC had, in the past, become a rather large meeting which resembled a town meeting and he feared if we had the President and other members of the Cabinet attending the meetings between the Department and the NME [Department of Defense] that we would get into the same situation we had been in before with the NSC. General Marshall agreed with the Secretary that this would be unwise.
The Secretary said that what we should try to do was to get to the place where the NSC became a place for real discussion and not just a meeting for approval of papers, etc. He felt that we should get the NSC so that the meetings were more working meetings.
General Marshall then mentioned a paper which he had sent over yesterday to the Department which consisted of some recommendations made by the JCS for a new directive to General MacArthur.2 General Marshall said that he did not want to hold this up too long as the JCS were recommending this to the President and he felt he should not delay in acting on the JCS recommendations.
During the conversation, General Marshall said that he was aware of the important political implications of the draft directive to MacArthur and wanted to get the Secretary’s wisdom on it but that he felt that it was essential that we move as quickly as possible on it.