795.00/8–2150
Memorandum by the Counselor (Kennan) to the Under Secretary of State (Webb)
With reference to your memorandum of August 17 about the Rashin bombing, I note that the President feels that we must take “whatever risks were necessary to destroy the points from which supplies were flowing.”
[Page 613]Should you have any further discussions with the President of this matter, it might be useful for you to know that Park Armstrong and I have been unable to get from our military intelligence authorities any confirmation that supplies are flowing to the Korean battlefield in any significant quantities from that area. We have not even been able to learn from them what are the main arteries of supplies for the North Korean forces; and they have not indicated that they have any particular interest, from the standpoint of their own responsibilities, as distinct from requests we may make of them, in the state of transportation facilities along the North Korean border or the use being made of those facilities.