795B.11/9–2950
Memorandum by Mr. Frank Ragusa of the Division of Security Affairs to the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Rusk)
Mr. Dulles had Miss Doyle dictate the following message to you by phone:
I hope we shall not give the impression of being disposed now with victory to ditch Syngman Rhee. He is far from perfect but he is a great patriot and anti-communist and organized his country so that they put up a good fight, and he is not as bad as Communist smear portrays him. If the Chiang Kai-shek episode is followed by what seems a similar treatment of Rhee, then it will seem to establish a pattern which would, I think, greatly discourage any Asiatic leaders from wanting to fight on our side.1
- The source text bore the following two manuscript notations: “I agree. D[ean] R[usk]” and “So do I. U A[lexis] J[ohnson]”.↩