320.2 AC/1–2451
Memorandum by the Director of the Office of United Nations Political and Security Affairs (Bancroft) to the Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs (Hickerson)
Subject: General MacArthur’s 11th Report—December 1–15, 1950, Inclusive1
1. The Department on January 2nd suggested a number of changes in the above described report. General MacArthur concurred in all except three of the changes, one of the three being unimportant. The important changes by the Department in which General MacArthur did not acquiesce are all concentrated in one paragraph—the first paragraph of General MacArthur’s Conclusions—which read as follows:
“Objective appraisal of events bearing upon the United Nations military effort in Korea is essential if future plans and operations are to be in consonance with reality. The full import of the changed situation became evident during the period covered by this report, wherein interrogation of newly captured Chinese Communist prisoners of war has revealed both the extent of the participation of this new enemy and his basic intentions. There is thus left no doubt that it has long been the plan of the Chinese Communist authorities to commit so much of their war resources in manpower and matériel as necessary to insure destruction of the United Nations Command and prevent the United Nations from bringing order and unification to all of Korea. Our general attack of 24 November threw the surreptitious Chinese Communist buildup operations off balance and prematurely exposed the decision of the Chinese Communist authorities to intervene—a decision not openly announced nor previously brought to light through political intelligence.”
The Department had suggested the deletion of the underlined portions of the above paragraph.2 General MacArthur declined to accept this amendment on the following grounds, as expressed in a memorandum from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Secretary of Defense:
“He has non-concurred with some of the proposed changes on the grounds that they would result in factual, historical distortion. To present to the UN a report of General MacArthur’s, bearing his signature but altered in a manner in which he has non-concurred, would be to render what would no longer be his report and would be contrary to the basic directive noted above which informed General MacArthur [Page 122] that any proposed changes in his reports would be cleared with him prior to publication.”
The chief objection of the Department to this paragraph was that the Chinese Communist forces had not yet crossed the 38th parallel and had therefore not definitely disclosed an intention “to insure destruction of the United Nations Command and prevent the United Nations from bringing order and unification to all of Korea.” In the light of developments since that time this objection is no longer relevant.
While the paragraph in its present form is not entirely satisfactory, it is suggested that it would be preferable to transmit the report to the United Nations and file it in its existing form rather than to seek material alterations.
UNP will attempt to seek Defense consent to the deletion of the word “political”—the next to the last word of the paragraph—if this can be accomplished without delay.3
2. The memorandum from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Secretary of Defense notes that the “delays in the submission of the report to the United Nations have resulted from clearances and subsequent transmission of the reports within the jurisdiction of the Department of State rather than of the Department of Defense”; and recommends that the Secretary bring the seriousness of the results of these delays to the attention of the Secretary of State. This statement is unquestionably correct, although it should be pointed out that the delays in the Department of State have been largely caused by General MacArthur’s repeated inclusion within the reports of controversial political issues, and the necessity of going back to the Department of Defense and Defense in turn to General MacArthur to have these controversial political issues eliminated.
- The report under reference was one of a regular series from the United Nations Command in Korea in accordance with the U.N. Security Council Resolution of July 7, 1950. At this time, lacking approval by the Department of State, the 11th Report had not been sent by the United States to the United Nations for publication.↩
- Set here as italics.↩
- In a marginal note, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs (Sandifer) indicated his belief that the proposed deletion was not worth the trouble and effort involved. In the report as submitted to the United Nations on January 31, the paragraph remained as submitted by General MacArthur, including the use of the word “political”; see U.N. document S/1996.↩