795.00/7–2750
Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Northeast Asian Affairs (Allison) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Rusk)
Subject: Policy Planning Staff Paper on Korea1 to be Discussed at Under Secretary’s Meeting, July 28.2
As I mentioned to you yesterday, the present Policy Planning Staff paper on the problem of what US policy should be regarding advance beyond the 38th parallel is much better than previous drafts and I believe can be supported by FE with only minor changes. These changes which I suggest are in the Analysis part of the paper rather than in the Conclusions and Recommendations.
I believe that paragraph 13 on page 5, as it now stands, gives a slanted view of the situation and I suggest that the first three words of the first sentence of this paragraph be eliminated and that the following words be substituted: “The possibility cannot be ignored that there might…”
It is suggested that in paragraph 14 the word “reasonable” be inserted in the third line from the bottom of page 5 after the word “every”.
The following changes are suggested in paragraph 16 in order to bring it into line with what I believe to be the true situation. In the second line of paragraph 16, cross out the words “might be” and insert [Page 481] instead “is already beginning to show” and then change the next word from “dissatisfied” to “dissatisfaction”. In the second sentence of paragraph 16, cross out the fourth word, “might”, and substitute “may well”.
I believe the Conclusions and Recommendations are all right and, while they do not go as far as I personally would like, nevertheless I believe they do go as far as we can reasonably expect at the present time.
The present paper does not, in my opinion, entirely comply with the President’s request, which was that the National Security Council should prepare for his consideration a report on the “Future United States Policy with Respect to North Korea”. While it is true that special attention was called to the policy to be pursued after the North Korean forces had been driven back to the 38th parallel, there is much more to the problem than just that. It is suggested that you point out at the Under Secretary’s Meeting that, while FE goes along with the present paper, it nevertheless feels that continued studies should be made on the whole question of future US policy toward Korea and that on this broader question you understand that FE will continue to have action responsibility in accordance with the memorandum you sent out last Monday to the various Offices concerned.3
- See the draft memorandum dated July 25, p. 469.↩
- Post, p. 486.↩
- Reference is to a memorandum by Mr. Rusk dated July 22 (Saturday), not printed, wherein Mr. Allison was designated as the responsible officer to act as steering member for the Department of State’s studies on future U.S. policy with respect to North Korea (795.00/7–2250).↩