265. Memorandum of Discussion at the 327th Meeting of the National Security Council, Washington, June 20, 19571
Present at the 327th Council meeting were the President of the United States, presiding; the Under Secretary of State; the Acting Secretary of Defense; and the Director, Office of Defense Mobilization. Also present were the Director, Bureau of the Budget; the [Page 553] Acting Federal Civil Defense Administrator (for Item 1); the Director, U.S. Information Agency; Assistant Secretary of State Bowie; Gen. Harold S. Bull, CIA (for Item 1); the Acting Secretary of the Army, the Acting Secretary of the Navy, and the Secretary of the Air Force (for Item 1); Gen. Nathan F. Twining for the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Chief of Staff, U. S. Army, the Chief of Naval Operations, and the Commandant, U. S. Marine Corps (for Item 1); Lt. Gen. Samuel E. Anderson, Dr. Albert G. Hill, and Dr. Bernard Koopman, of the Department of Defense (for Item 1); William M. Holaday, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense (for Item 1); the Director of Central Intelligence; The Assistant to the President; the Deputy Assistant to the President; Special Assistants to the President Cutler and Dearborn; the White House Staff Secretary; the Military, Naval and Air Force Aides to the President (for Item 1); the Executive Secretary, NSC; and the Deputy Executive Secretary, NSC.
There follows a summary of the discussion at the meeting and the main points taken.
[Here follows discussion of item 1, “Relative Military Advantage of IRBM–ICBM vs. Manned Aircraft and Non-Ballistic Missiles”.]
2. Significant World Developments Affecting U.S. Security
[Here follows discussion of a report by a United Nations committee on the Hungarian uprisings.]
Mr. Dulles pointed out that at long last Mao Tse-tung’s speech of February 1957 had been released by Peiping in the official version. It had likewise been published in Pravda today. While the official text had been doctored, it still contained many of the most significant points covered in the earlier texts of what Mao had said. After describing some of these points, Mr. Dulles prophesied that the speech would constitute the ideological basis for the Government of Communist China for some time to come. Moreover, the speech certainly indicated differing trends in Communist China and in the USSR.
Mr. Dulles also noted a withdrawal of significant numbers of Chinese Communist troops from Tibet. He believed that these troops were being withdrawn in the face of Tibetan-inspired difficulties, on the one hand, and for reasons of economy, on the other. The Chinese Communists would presumably attempt to win the allegiance of Tibetans by different methods than the military methods of the past.
The President inquired whether the stationing of Chinese Communist troops in Tibet had not been considered a means of maintaining pressure on India. Mr. Dulles replied that this was certainly a consideration in the deployment of Chinese Communist forces in Tibet.
[Here follows discussion of developments in Indonesia, Thailand, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Yemen.]
[Page 554]The National Security Council:2
Noted and discussed an oral briefing by the Director of Central Intelligence on the subject, with specific reference to a summary of the UN report on the Hungarian uprisings; the recent publications of the official text of Mao Tse-tung’s speech of February 1957; the Chinese Communist troop withdrawals from Tibet; and the situations in Indonesia, Thailand and the Middle East.
[Here follows discussion of items 3, “U.S. Policy Toward Ethiopia”, 4, “Antarctica”, and 5, “Further Application of ‘New Look’ to U.S. Defense Efforts Overseas”.]