Office of the Historian

258. Memorandum From the Secretary of State to the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Robertson)1

Washington, May 25, 1955.

At luncheon today, I spoke to the President about your memorandum to me of May 23 on flights near Chinese Communist territory. The President said he would discuss this matter further with Admiral Radford.2

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Also, I discussed with the President our present policy of letting things “simmer” and avoiding efforts to arrive at a formalistic arrangement, which efforts would probably break down and provide an excuse for Chinese Communist hostilities. The President said he completely agreed with this policy.

JFD
  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, Meetings with the President. Top Secret.↩

  2. An unsigned memorandum of May 26 to Robertson, apparently from Dulles, filed as an attachment to the source text, reads as follows:

    “The President spoke to Admiral Radford about the question of flights in the Far East, and Radford is taking steps to limit any such to purposes of real military significance.”

    Telegram JCS 982226 from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to CINCFE, May 27, directed that aircraft operations in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea should be so conducted as to minimize involvement with Communist aircraft. It is scheduled for publication in the Korea compilation in a forthcoming volume.

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