611.00/10–2453
No. 307
Memorandum by the President to the Secretary of
State
I think that the men who got together to submit the attached report1 should be complimented on taking hold of this thorny subject and giving us their opinions on it. I would like to see them encouraged to continue their study of the matter; in this way we shall certainly get more valid reports than we would otherwise.
At any point where we think they have gone a bit astray, we should give them the benefit of our own thinking.
I do believe that they treat the term “psychological warfare” in too narrow a fashion. After all, psychological warfare can be anything from the singing of a beautiful hymn up to the most extraordinary kind of physical sabotage.
I agree with their report that during this period our work should be carefully thought out and should be in concert with the ideas of our allies. On the other hand, I agree with C. D. Jackson that we must have a very definite American objective and know exactly what it is. There may come a time when it will be very important for us that we make no mistake on this point.
Finally, I must remark that it seems strange to me that here at home and abroad prominent officials of our government have completely diverse opinions as to what happened in East Berlin and East Germany. It would seem that we could at least have the same understanding of the facts. The attached document2 and C. D. Jackson’s memorandum3 show that this is not so.
- Presumably this is a reference to Tabs B and D which were attached to the memorandum by Merchant, Oct. 1, supra, and were subsequently sent to the White House as attachments to the memorandum for the President (Tab E, supra). These documents were not found attached to the source text.↩
- This is a reference to a memorandum by L. Arthur Minnich of the Office of the Staff Secretary in the White House to President Eisenhower, dated Oct. 14, not printed, which briefly summarizes the contents of the memorandum by C. D. Jackson.↩
- Not printed.↩