132. Memorandum on the Substance of Discussion at the Department of State–Joint Chiefs of Staff Meeting, Washington, April 13, 1956, 11:30 a.m.1
[Here follow a list of 28 persons present and discussion of unrelated subjects. Attending were Joint Chiefs of Staff members Radford, Taylor, Burke, and General Randolph McC. Pate, Commandant of the Marine Corps. General Lemnitzer was in Washington and also represented the Department of Defense. The Department of State officials included Murphy, MacArthur, Robertson, and Hemmendinger. Frank Wisner, Deputy Director for Plans, represented the CIA, and Gleason represented the NSC]
Korea
General Lemnitzer said that he feels it is most important for the U.S. to carry out the promises it has made to get the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission activities out of South Korea. These groups are not neutral, are providing intelligence information to the communists and are causing great concern to Korean and U.S. military authorities. He said that the Korean demonstrations last August against the neutral inspection teams had been very serious and had been restrained only with great difficulty. Recurrence of such demonstrations could be very dangerous for the safety of U.S. military elements in Korea. General Lemnitzer added that he did not know about latest developments in negotiations with Sweden and Switzerland but was not optimistic that these negotiations would be successful. Mr. Robertson summarized the contents of the latest Chinese Communist note2 on Korea which proposed an international conference. Mr. Robertson and General Lemnitzer agreed that this note was one more propaganda strategem by the Chinese Communists. Mr. Robertson also said that he had had a number of discussions with [Page 244] Swedish and Swiss representatives but that effective results had not been forthcoming; the Swedish Ambassador in Washington talks a lot more resolutely than his government is willing to act. General Lemnitzer said that he had just talked to some Senators about this matter and they found it impossible to understand why we put up with this situation. He noted that the communists are bringing in substantial military equipment in violation of the armistice, while we are hamstrung by armistice provisions prohibiting introduction of new weapons. We are thus not able to maintain the balance of strength in Korea envisaged by the armistice agreement. Our weakness is particularly serious in the case of aircraft, such as all-weather planes. Admiral Radford commented that the situation in Korea is a perfect illustration of what the communists mean by inspection and that if the U.S. ever agrees to disarmament arrangements involving inspection, this is exactly the kind of situation we would face. He said we would be foolish to get into this situation. [Here follows discussion of unrelated subjects.]