Office of the Historian

147. Letter From the Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Army (Brucker)1

Washington, May 21, 1957.

My Dear Secretary Brucker: I have your proposed message to CINCFE Tokyo with reference to the Girard case.2

I fear that having once accepted the jurisdiction of the Joint Committee and having agreed to Japanese jurisdiction, all in accordance with the Administrative Agreement, an attempt now abruptly and unilaterally to reverse our position would be understandably judged by the Japanese to be a repudiation of our international agreement with them. The consequences of this could profoundly and adversely affect our position in Japan, our relations with Japan and our whole position in the Far East.

Can there not be any more careful study of whether and how the United States can extricate itself from the present position without serious damage to our national security interests?

Sincerely yours,

John Foster Dulles3
  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, White House Memoranda. Secret. Drafted by Dulles.↩

  2. A copy of the proposed message, bearing the notation “Telephoned from Defense Dept.”, is attached to the source text. It reads as follows: “For Lemnitzer from Brucker. This is an Executive Agency message. You will direct the officer presently exercising general court martial jurisdiction over Specialist Third Class William S. Girard to proceed without delay to process under the uniform code of military justice the allegations which have been made against Girard. You will also direct the United States representative on the Joint Committee, first, to withdraw his notification to the Japanese representative that the United States has decided not to exercise jurisdiction in the case of Sp.–3 Girard and, secondly, to reaffirm the position that Girard’s actions were done while acting in the performance of official duty at the time of the incident. The prompt exercise of court martial jurisdiction by the United States in this manner is without prejudice to the rights of the Japanese to press their point of view.”

    The draft message is accompanied by a brief note to Dulles from his secretary, Mildred J. Asbjornson: “Mr. Robertson said re the attached that in his opinion this message should not be sent to Tokyo even if it required Presidential action to prevent it. He thinks we should explore possibility of having Japanese agree to refer question to Governments in accordance with Article 26 of administrative agreement.”

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  3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩