Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower papers, Whitman file
Memorandum of Discussion at the 187th Meeting of the National Security Council, Thursday, March 4, 19541
[Extracts]
eyes only
The following were present at the 187th NSC meeting: The President of the United States, presiding; the Vice President of the United States; the Acting Secretary of State; the Secretary of Defense; the Director, Foreign Operations Administration; the Director, Office of Defense Mobilization. Also present were the Secretary of the Treasury; Mr. Morrison for the Director, Bureau of the Budget; the Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission; the Deputy Secretary of Defense; Robert R. Bowie, Department of State; Commissioner Campbell, AEC; the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Director of Central Intelligence; the Assistant to the President; Mr. Cutler and Mr. Jackson, Special Assistants to the President; the Executive Secretary, NSC; and the Deputy Executive Secretary, NSC.
There follows a summary of the discussion at the meeting and the main points taken.
At the outset of the meeting the President, in a humorous tone, said that if any member of the National Security Council or anyone who attended its meetings had talked to the Alsops for more than 30 seconds in the course of the last four weeks, that individual was to make a date to come in and talk with him.
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3. U.S. Objectives in the Event of General War With the Soviet Bloc (NSC 5410)2
Mr. Cutler briefed the members of the Council, and explained that the Planning Board believed that a policy on United States objectives [Page 636] in the event of war was desirable to provide a basis for planning by the appropriate departments and agencies. He pointed out that the present statement had been unanimously approved by the Planning Board, but as yet the views of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had not been received.
Admiral Radford explained that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been unable to agree on their views, and he therefore requested that the Council postpone action on this statement for one week.
The President pointed out that we could anticipate in the aftermath of a third world war a tremendous swing toward isolationism in the United States. Moreover, the colossal job of occupying the territories of the defeated enemy would be far beyond the resources of the United States at the end of such a war. While the President therefore said he agreed that it was right to keep this problem of war objectives in mind, he believed that the chaos resulting from a third world war would be so great as to render it impossible for the National Security Council to determine in advance our precise objectives and courses of action in the event of such a war.
As regards the kind of government we would attempt to set up in a defeated Russia, the President said it was hard to debate. A totalitarian system was the only imaginable instrument by which Russia could be ruled for a considerable interval after the war. By and large, concluded the President, the main purpose served by this paper was to emphasize how vital it was to avoid a third world war.
Mr. C.D. Jackson referred to paragraph 9–a of the report, calling for mobilization of our material, moral and human resources, as “wishy-washy”.
Mr. Cutler explained that this statement had been inserted because we had not fully mobilized our human resources in World War II and that we should certainly be aware of the necessity of doing so in any future world war.
The President expressed the view that if a third world war were to begin with an enemy atomic attack on the United States, this country would itself be required to accept a totalitarian regime. There would be no way to avoid it, and this was another argument for doing our best to prevent such a war.
The National Security Council:3
[Page 637]Deferred action on NSC 5410 until the March 18 Council meeting, in order to permit receipt of the views of the Joint Chiefs of Staff thereon.4
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- Drafted by Deputy Executive Secretary Gleason on Mar. 5.↩
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NSC 5410, Feb. 19, 1954, entitled “U.S. Objectives in the Event of General War With the Soviet Bloc”, is not printed. (S/S–NSC files, lot 63 D 351, NSC 5410) NSC 5410/1 of the same title, dated Mar. 29, 1954, is printed on p. 644. The origin of the NSC 5410 Series is to be found in NSC Action No. 944–e taken at the 168th meeting of the NSC on Oct. 29, 1953, in which, during the course of approving NSC 162/2, the Council noted that “the Planning Board would submit for Council consideration a revision of ‘U.S. Objectives vis-à-vis the USSR in the Event of War’”. For NSC Action No. 944, see footnote 5, p. 575. For text of NSC 162/2, Oct. 30, 1953, see p. 577.
The NSC Planning Board prepared its first draft report on Dec. 3, 1953, and a draft statement on the same subject was prepared by the Council Staff on Dec. 28, 1953. Copies of both the draft report and statement are in S/P–NSC files, lot 62 D 1, NSC 5410.
↩ - The following paragraph constitutes NSC Action No. 1051.↩
- Discussion of NSC 5410 was deferred until the 190th meeting of the NSC on Mar. 25; see the memorandum of discussion, infra.↩