795.00/12–350
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Executive Secretariat (McWilliams)
Subject: Meeting in Mr. Matthews’ office, at approximately 12:00 Noon, re Korea.
Participants: Messrs. Webb, Matthews, Jessup, Nitze, Kennan, Hickerson, Rusk, Barrett, McWilliams
Messrs. Matthews, Rusk, Jessup and Nitze had just returned from a meeting in the Pentagon attended by the Secretary with the Secretary of Defense and his advisers. Mr. Matthews reported that the current thinking of the military was that while the military situation in Korea was extremely dangerous, it was not yet bordering on a catastrophe. It was felt that blocking positions could be established to enable the bulk of the 8th Army to retreat, if necessary, to the Pusan area, where they could be evacuated. The bulk of the 10th Corps has been ordered to concentrate in the Hamhung area, where they will be evacuated if necessary. It is the feeling of the military that we should continue to fight as long as possible and only evacuate in event of necessity. It is also their feeling that the South Korean troops should not be abandoned by our forces, but should either be transported to the south where they could disband and infiltrate back to their homes or be taken to some point outside Korea. The military people agreed with us that it would be unwise to engage in a complete war with the Chinese, but the Navy and Air Force believe that we should take some action in the event of evacuation to repay the Chinese Communists for their deeds. This might take the form of a complete blockade and a concentrated air effort over the major cities of China. This is not, at the moment, a decision, but merely represents thinking of some of the people at the Pentagon.
There was some discussion in this meeting of the latest national intelligence estimate on Soviet intentions and capabilities. Mr. Kennan said that he had looked it over but did not entirely agree with it. He said he did not believe the events of the past few weeks were the result of a master plan by the Soviets, but that they had been playing the situation by ear and through a series of favorable events had found themselves in a much more advantageous position [Page 1336] than they had ever hoped. He also said that he did not yet believe that World War III was inevitable and he did not believe that another Korea is likely to break out in another place.
Toward the close of the meeting Dr. Jessup said that he was greatly concerned over the matter of censorship and press speculation. He thought that the worst thing that could happen at this point was loose statements by Government officials, and he urged that the President be asked to issue an order stopping all speechmaking, press conferences, and interviews by individuals. He said he thought that the program which has been going on in the Department of having correspondents see selected officials for background should be stopped at once, and that consideration should be given to having questions submitted in advance of their press conferences to the President and the Secretary. Mr. Barrett and Mr. Webb both said they would give attention to this matter.1
- On December 5, President Truman issued a directive to all Cabinet officers and certain other officials of the Executive Branch “to reduce the number of public speeches pertaining to foreign or military policy”, The directive laid down the necessity for clearing with the Department of State in advance any “speech, press release, or other public statement concerning foreign policy” and with the Department of Defense any such statement concerning military policy. The President also issued instructions that officials overseas, “including military commanders and diplomatic representatives, should be ordered to exercise extreme caution in public statements, to clear all but routine statements with their departments, and to refrain from direct communication on military or foreign policy with newspapers, magazines, or other publicity media in the United States”. The directive was forwarded to General MacArthur by the JCS on December 6; for the text, see Hearings, p. 3536.↩