Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, East Asia and the Pacific, Volume XII, Part 1

State-JCS Meetings, lot 61 D 417

Memorandum on the Substance of Discussions at a Department of State-Joint Chiefs of Staff Meeting¹

top secret

[Washington,] September 3, 1954—11:30 a.m.

[Here follows a list of persons present (27). All of the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff attended. Murphy led the State Department group; Gleason attended for the NSC and the CIA was represented by Lieutenant General Charles P. Cabell, now its Deputy Director.]

1. Australian Proposal Concerning Military Machinery for SEAP.

Mr. Murphy invited the attention of the Joint Chiefs to a telegram from Manila² setting forth the Australian revision of Article 5 of the draft of the Southeast Asia Pact, which would include a vague reference to the need for establishing military machinery in order to implement the terms of the treaty.

Admiral Radford stated the Joint Chiefs did not concur with the Australian revision. He referred to his experience at the conference in Honolulu when ANZUS had been set up. There, an effort had been made by the Australians to insert some vague wording regarding military machinery, which had the ulterior purpose of involving the U.S. in a commitment which this country did not wish to make. Vague wording, the Admiral added, containing the seeds for a great deal of argument. The U.S. wants to avoid a definite commitment in that part of the world. Admiral Carney echoed this view. He said that with such a vague clause, subsequent discussion as to details would immediately cause trouble.

Admiral Radford continued that in his opinion the Australian proposed revision was a reflection more of a British, rather than of an Australian desire. He believed that just as at the Honolulu conference the Australians would eventually back down. Some formula involving military representatives, as in the case of the ANZUS treaty, was as far as we ought to go.

Mr. Murphy stated that the State Department agreed with the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the Australian revision should be watered down to conform more with a draft of Article 5 as contained in a telegram from the Defense representative³ at the Conference in Manila.

[Here follows discussion of the European Defense Community, France, and China.]

1. A note on the title page reads: “State Draft. Not cleared with any of the participants.”
2. Apparent reference to telegram Secto 5 from Manila, Sept. 3, p. 833, received at 4:26 a.m. on Sept. 3.
3. Not found in Department of State files.