794.00/9–1654
No. 802
The Deputy Chief of Mission in Japan
(Parsons) to
the Acting Director of the Office of Northeast Asian Affairs
(McClurkin)
official–informal
Dear Bob: As we have just learned that Ken Young is moving over to PSA, I have the pleasure of writing to you directly again.1 By the time this reaches you, you may have heard of an Embassy memo dated Sept. 9th, copies of which we gave to Doug MacArthur and Rod O’Connor. This memo is our preliminary effort at a local “new look” at our policies and tactics in Japan. In case the text has not yet reached you via the officers mentioned, I am enclosing two copies.
I should like to repeat that this memo is preliminary. It represents a synthesis of views expressed on the morning of the 9th at a meeting in the Ambassador’s office attended by Jerry Higgins,2 George Morgan,3 Duke Diehl Bill Leonhart and myself. A remarkable aspect of the meeting was that the views expressed from the various viewpoints of the speakers—political, economic, military, etc.—were so consonant with each other. The result was that we all readily concurred and the Ambassador approved the memo which Bill Leonhart put together with his usual speed and skill.
A copy of this memo was given to General Magruder on the 10th at the close of our Embassy meeting, which he attended, with the Secretary and his principal advisors. I expect tomorrow to learn his reaction. We have commenced active studies in pursuance of the line of thinking set forth in the memo and have set as a tentative target October 1 for drafting a more definitive paper on the views [Page 1727] of the Embassy, the MAAG, and, I hope, FEC (to the extent that FEC wishes to contribute).
We have been encouraged to undertake this venture by the reception accorded to the memo by the Secretary, Doug MacArthur, Bill Sebald, and Rod O’Connor, all of whom read it while in Tokyo. The Secretary indicated at our meeting that he would like us to pursue our thinking further along these lines and he did not take issue with any of the points made. In fact, in talking to us, he said a number of things which paralleled the general tenor of the memorandum.
I hope this exercise will prove helpful and that we will complete it well before Mr. Yoshida arrives in Washington. In the meantime, I hope you will not be shocked by the new slant to our thoughts. There is one matter of importance not treated in the memo, namely, what attitude we should take towards the continuance in office of Mr. Yoshida. We will handle that separately but I think we here are increasingly of the view that we would welcome his elevation to the role of senior statesman and adviser somewhat after the manner of the old Genro.
Yours sincerely,