172. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense (Wilson), Washington, June 11, 1957, 5:48 p.m.1
TELEPHONE CALL FROM SEC WILSON
The Sec returned the call and W said he has a letter from Cutler re deployment from Japan.2 W said he (meaning the Pres) had 60% as the reduction and Cutler has it in the letter. The Sec did not remember. W is not clear if the Pres had in mind 60% of all or just ground forces. The Sec thought he meant ground forces. W thought he meant all. The Sec does not think so. W said the present plan is to get more than 60% of the ground forces out. The Sec said that is good. W said he may call the Sec (the Pres may call). The Sec said he did not think it was a directive—he thought it was for ground forces because he said the sea and air forces don’t get into so much trouble. W said we have over 100,000 there at the end of last year—½ is in the Air Force, 30% in Army and 20% in Navy and Marines. (7,000 in Navy and 13 in [Page 346] Marines). The Sec said he was surprised and maybe it was 60% of all. The Sec repeated it may have been an illustration—not a directive. The Sec mentioned having something firm before Kishi comes. W did not know what position the Sec wanted to be in. The Sec said we want to have a position which will be firm on a substantial reduction in the fairly near future. That is as definite as he is. The more definite and bigger the amount so much the better. You may be in a position where they say don’t go so fast—they like the foreign exchange.
W is going to review the fleet tomorrow and then to Quantico. He was going to Canada next week and that means he would miss Kishi—the Sec can get Quarles. W will start to work on it in the meantime to get it cleared up.
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, General Telephone Conversations. Transcribed by Bernau.↩
- Apparent reference to Document 170.↩