Office of the Historian

Editorial Note

At 11:45 a.m., June 2, 1954, President Eisenhower met at the White House with the following individuals: John Foster Dulles, the Secretary of State; Robert B. Anderson, the Deputy Secretary of Defense; [Page 1658] Admiral Arthur W. Radford, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Douglas MacArthur II, Counselor of the Department of State; and Robert Cutler, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. The subject under consideration was the appropriate response by the United States to unprovoked aggression by Communist China in Southeast Asia should it occur.

Cutler transmitted his notes of the meeting to Secretary Dulles on the same day. His memorandum of transmittal contained the following summary of the sense of the meeting:

  • “a. In the event of overt, unprovoked Chinese Communist aggression in Southeast Asia which would be a direct threat to the security of the United States and to other nations having security interests in the region, Congress would be asked immediately to declare that a state of war existed with Communist China, and the U.S. should then launch large-scale air and naval attacks on ports, airfields, and other military targets in mainland China, using as militarily appropriate ‘new weapons,’ in the expectation that some of such other nations would join in opposing such aggression.
  • “b. The U.S. should seek firm agreement in advance from other nations having security interests in the region (such as some, or all, of the Philippine Islands, Thailand, France, the Associated States, Australia, New Zealand, etc.) to join with the U.S. in counteracting this threat to the security of the free world.”

For Cutler’s memorandum and his notes on the White House session, see volume XII.