101. Editorial Note
At a meeting of the National Security Council on February 10, Admiral Radford commented on the progress of the evacuation of the Tachen Islands. The memorandum of discussion reads as follows:
“Admiral Radford explained that the evacuation operations in the Tachens area had been proceeding very successfully in good weather. Barring a change in the weather for the worse, the task [Page 249] would be completed at the end of the week. One U.S. aircraft had been shot down, but under circumstances which did not portend serious Chinese Communist operations. The pilot of this plane had become lost in the fog and was flying low over the Communist mainland when he was compelled to ditch his plane after it had been hit by 20-mm anti-aircraft fire. No Chinese Communist planes had actually appeared at the scene of the evacuation operation to this date.
“Secretary Dulles inquired as to the danger of Communist submarines. Admiral Radford replied that despite the report that one periscope had been sighted, our military people on the scene were inclined to discount the danger of submarine attack.” (Memorandum of discussion by Gleason, February 11; Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, NSC Records)