795.00/8–1450
The Under Secretary of State (Webb) to the Secretary of Defense (Johnson)1
My Dear Mr. Secretary: The Department of State is very much concerned with the possibly serious results of the bombing by the American Air Force of the North Korean city of Najin. We believe that the Department of Defense should give urgent consideration to the relation between this bombing mission and the President’s directive that bombing operations north of the 38th Parallel should stay well clear of the Manchurian and Siberian frontiers.
A further concern arises from the type of publicity which this mission is likely to get. For example, in today’s edition of the New York [Page 577] Herald Tribune there appears a story by Mr. Ansel E. Talbert from Tokyo which left the strong implication that Air Force sources in Japan considered this raid as one directed against the Soviet Union and its submarine capabilities and not as a raid militarily essential to the successful prosecution of the Korean war. I am sure you will agree that stories of this sort, which seem to reflect official American thinking, could have very grave consequences in our efforts to localize the Korean fight and to prevent the outbreak of general hostilities. We believe it would be important for the Department of Defense to arrange for official statements relating the bombing of this port directly to the war in Korea and to deny flatly that it had any other purpose or implication.
Sincerely yours,
- On August 14, Mr. Webb met with President Truman and indicated to him the intent of the Department of State to take up vigorously with the Defense Department the matter of the bombing of Rashin. Mr. Webb informed the President that he was not suggesting that Mr. Truman take any action, but merely wanted him to know that this step was being taken by the State Department (795.00/8–1450).↩