265. Letter From the Chargé in Korea (Weil) to the Ambassador to Korea (Dowling)1
Dear Red: I enclose copies of memoranda dated December 16 and 282 on the subject of reduction of forces, concerning which you will find State–Defense and Embassy–CINCUNC messages in the files. You will also see my telegram of December 303 reporting President Rhee’s reaction to proposals General Decker and I presented to the Minister of Defense on December 28. In this connection it may be possible to glean some evidence of Dr. Rhee’s current mood at the New Year reception tomorrow.
As you will note, in our joint message of December 30,4 Mike Kim told General Decker and me, at our meeting on December 28, that President Rhee and others in the Government were planning to review their policies. He said they would have to decide whether the situation warranted remaining on a war footing with little or no regard for the economy, or whether the military establishment should be cut on the assumption that the cold war would go on for many years. I suggested to Mike that it would be unwise to adopt one assumption or the other—i.e., put all his eggs in one basket; and both General Decker and I urged Mike to advocate the closest approach possible to a golden mean between the two extremes. We tried to convince Mike that under the circumstances this was the only practical solution.
During our meeting on December 28 MikeKim seemed perfectly calm and businesslike and Paik Sun Yup merely listened. By the time you read this we may have received some indication of the President’s conclusions, but I can’t help feeling that MikeKim was a little optimistic when he said he would hope to have the answer before January 10. If they appear to be dragging their feet I may, in view of [Page 537] certain information which you will see in the Top Secret file,5 discuss with General Decker the advisability of our seeing the President, who returned to Seoul this afternoon.
A letter on other matters follows.6
Sincerely,
- Source: Department of State, NA Files: Lot 60 D 680, Reduction of Forces (Korean). Secret; Official–Informal. Ambassador Dowling was in Washington for home leave and consultations.↩
- Regarding the December 16 memorandum, see footnote 4, Document 258. Regarding the December 28 memorandum, see footnote 4, Supra.↩
- Document 263.↩
- Supra.↩
- The reference is unclear.↩
- Not found in Department of State files.↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩