179. Memorandum From the Secretary of Defense (Wilson) to the Executive Secretary of the National Security Council (Lay)1
Washington, November 2,
1956.
SUBJECT
- U.S. Objectives and Courses of Action in Korea
- 1.
- With reference to my memorandum of 12 October 1956,2 subject as above, I have on further consideration concluded that the difficulties involved in introducing [less than 1 line of source text not declassified] into Korea would not be warranted merely to effect the transfer of four ROK active army divisions to reserve status while at the same time maintaining U.S. forces at their present level.
- 2.
- However, I prefer not to formalize my views with respect to the JCS memorandum until mid-December since, at that time, the Department of Defense will have made certain decisions with respect to U.S. overseas deployments. Obviously, decisions as to such deployments are inseparable from the size of the ROK forces we should support, and I believe it would therefore be premature and [Page 342] unwise to decide at this time either the U.S. force deployments in Korea or the closely related problem of the size of the ROK forces.
C. E.
Wilson3
- Source: Department of State, S/P Files: Lot 62 D 1, NSC 5514. Top Secret. Circulated to the NSC under cover of a memorandum by Lay, November 6.↩
- See footnote 1, Document 172.↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩