795.00/11–350
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs (Barrett) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Rusk)
Subject: Chinese in North Korea
Having appeared unduly disturbed over the Chinese in North Korea subject for several days, I’ll now risk seeming really alarmist. Solely on the basis of the very unusual Chinese Communist propaganda campaign of recent days, it seems to us that:
1. At the very least the Chinese are building up to very large numbers (perhaps a hundred thousand or so) “volunteers” in Korea, with the probable purpose of keeping us bogged down in Korea for many months.
2. At the most they are building up to open employment of hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops in Korea with a full expectation that this will mean general war between the Chinese and ourselves (for which they are preparing their own people psychologically).
On the basis of propaganda alone, it would appear that they are not planning to limit their participation to anything like as small a force as the presently reported 18,000 “volunteers”.